Went to an estate sale this weekend and to my utter shock there was a box full of sterling silverware as well as sterling dishes cups and other items. The lady practically gave all of it yo me after telling her I was a collector and how pleased I was to have found "the motherload" I has to to force her to take more money then she wanted for it despite telling me she knew it was valuable. She told me she was happy it was going to someone who appreciated it and it's what her mother and grandmother who had collected it all would have wanted.

That's not always true. American silverware made in the 1700s through the 1860s or so was rarely ever marked with the silver content. It was usually only stamped with the silversmith's name or touchmark. Sometimes it wasn't even marked at all. You're spot on for modern silver though.

Just the information I've been looking for appreciate the video and much respect to you and your wife have an amazing weekend.

I have a lot of not marked silver somme of wich its more pure than sterling. I have Italian high end silver ware not marked and ice cream cups with thick silver cup ( to melt the ice cream fast,its used for thermal transfer not because its silver)but the brass alloy leg and i also have silver cups made by artisans and not marked. I look at silverware like a pro and my best tip its to look at the joints from the mould.Silver plated have smooth joints but massive silver has rough edges.

Short sweet and to the point! Have a GREAT Day My Friend!!!

Another tip to quickly rule out pieces that aren't sterling would be the spoon bowl test, take a piece of sterling silver like a soup spoon or teaspoon, try and bend the tip of the spoon up and towards the handle. you don't have to bend it all the way or anything, you're just looking to see if it will flex. If it does bend or will flex I would recommend looking a little closer to see if it has the proper hallmarks to be a silver alloy. If however you try to bend the spoon or see if it flexes and it doesn't budge even under extreme force by your fingers then I would be fairly certain without even looking at the markings that the piece is not sterling, also look for wear on the underside of the bowl of the spoon from where it would be placed on the table, wear means the silver plating is worn off, sterling wont wear like that

Silver will ring like a bell

What a good price to pay per utensil..thanks for the uploads

1st! This is a great video for people that are just looking for silver in any form. Especially yard sales which are great for silver hunting.

That’s useful! 👍

Damn bruh, absolutely respect for the history or craft. You just chucked that sterling fork into a bin. 😂

Understandable, have a nice day.

Good info

I find quite a bit of sterling, but occasionally I have found stuff with no markings, either cause its old or the piece with the stamp came off. Recently just got a candy dish that I suspect it was Sterling after testing it it ended up being sterling silver. The way I figured it out was there was residue of plaster or something on the bottom of it so it seemed like it was originally a weighted piece in the bottom just fell off. There's only a couple bucks at Goodwill so it was worth the gamble. Even the silver played it flat where it can have quite a bit of silver in it depending on the piece and how old it is. Back in the old days from what I've read they really had no clue what they were doing silver plating, so they could end up putting quite a bit on there without even realizing it or sometimes barely any. I'll usually grab any silverware that has a very fancy pattern even if I know it's silver plate. I've had some silver plated forks and spoons that had over three grams of silver on them. The trick to finding silver is either finding a Goodwill place with staff that is clueless of that stuff. Or learn to identify things that aren't marked. That second part is still a gamble for me.

Was hoping to see what came out of the gold plated jewelry cell you harvested all the gold from. Is that coming in a new video? I wonder how much gold can you get from it?

And usually if it's Rogers&Co then most likely it's plated. Most all of their silverware is plated over white brass.

Ascorbic acid that you used to deposit gold, is it the same for human use? please reply

I can't comment on the actual purity of the silver compared to what the purity should be where Sreetips is as I am up in Canada and generally from what I've seen with the more common makers I run into like Birks, the silver is usually very very close to being 92.5% pure. I haven't really run into too much under karating of sterling flatware, but that doesn't mean it isn't or hasn't happened from the companies I'm familiar with..

There are many nuances to silverware varying from country to country. "Real" Silverware in Denmark, where I'm from has purity of just .830 and you will find varieties with a purity of down to .562. Below .50 it's not allowed to sell as silverware. But we rarely see .925 in silverware. Mostly jewelry.

Another interesting method: Hover a neodymium magnet and it will reveal whether or not your dinner-ware has any steel content. XD if the magnet reacts it's not silver. Try it, you can touch the magnet directly to silver, gold, copper, most elements and it won't latch on but with things that are alloys of Iron it will. XD and if there's steel in your fork then most likely it's silver content is 0.

Good to know

I have some labled Alaska and nothing else. It seems to doscolor like silver does though and is a simple undecorated set and is an antique set i got somewhere as a traid. Is it likely its a lower silver content alloy for daily use?

I found a really old spoon with "VICTORIA PLATE E.P.N.S A1", written on back on it. Can you tell me what does the victoria plate means on it?

Is it possible that a fake iron(or aluminium) item can have sterling mark on them? Just out of curiosity.

I have a small spoon with government building written on the top of the bowl and Chicago ill on the bottom, with a building in the middle. On the back side of the handle is has , c a crown with an m inside then another c. Then it has ger. Silver. Is it real or plated?

Might u know best place to buy Sterling silver spoons forks knives? I would have to buy one piece at a time tho Thanks

It could still be marked 800, 830, 835, 900 (coin silver), 925 (sterling), 935, 950, and sometimes 980. Which are all silver contents that are seen.

Good info !!

What about if it has IS in it?

Silver is pretty cheap though, what's to stop someone melting down a bar and creating their own spoons with it? It wouldn't have the Sterling on it then.

What if fake silverware has the word on it? It’s still fake, right?

Yes

Unless, of course, the cheat stamps "STERLING" into the thin silver coat over brass or steel.

Uve never had something miss labeled or not labeled??

I have a silver spoon with the signature of leonardo da vinci on it and i wanna know if it is legit or not

I have an ancient spoon written BTW

checked my yesterday and boy was i surprised. none of it was real, turns out the acid ive been taking for the last 30 years had me imagining i had silverware, ive been eating with wayne newton impersonators fashioned into chop sticks.

Patina

Ever run into Brazil silver?

Guys i have antique collection of 20 spoons gave by my grandfather and i wanna sell them i wonder were i could see the values

can't the word sterling just be engraved on it???

Sterling silver = 92.5% Silver!

You also have the hallmarks. I did something absolutely evil to myself the other day. We have these things called flea markets and i missed out on a kilo of silver forks because i decided someone else might like them as none were sharp. I mean a sharp silver fork would bend anyway for gods sake so of course they didnt make them!

Sterling is actually 92.5% silver.

What is it says 900 on it

One sneeze and i missed the whole video😢

eh, unless you are living in a country were sterling never was a standard. The USA yes Canada yes the UK yes! other European countries eh, no! it is a commonwealth measure of silver metal 9.5 if I'm not mistaking. in other countries in history silver was controlled by the monarchs (like in English sterling!) but at other measures and in the case of Germany it was mad because Germany was a union of collaborating kingdoms and none of them agreed on a staple reaching a standard of silver also severely dilute silver was very common in their coinage. in Spain silver was 9.5 very trustworthy to the point that it became the staple throughout Europe for coins at the size of early dollars (no surprise there!) the Spanish pieces of eight (8 Reale's and in colonies pieces of actual 8 real coins cut in 8 silver pizza slices because of lack of small change!) yet at this time sterling wasn't global everyone made do with what was the order of metals at a local point yet weight was the main order of measure, not purity! the order of and a 9.5 measure of silver german thaler were the same as a nearly born USA 1777 USA Dollar or a 1810 french 5 franks and so on. in most countries, sterling was a staple without stadarization, and coin weight sets were set to 9.5 but like I said Germany was different in its coinage the silver small change coins throughout the country from the 1820s to the late 1860s are severely low grade aka TRASH!! and Germany was the only country to do this probably due to the vast amounts of economic crises in this time between 1820 to 1870 aka Germany and silver a long story that needs more research! some of that created the fires to burn into WWI and WWII.

Mine just says Italy

I have tons of spoons and jewelry stamped "Sterling" that are actually just plated copper or brass. Some chinese crookery going on i suppose.

I have one

surely unscrupulous manufacturers/dealers could just stamp it with "sterling silver" even if it isn't ?

I have seen silver pieces actually being stamped "silver or silver plated" my airline silver pieces given to us by stewardesses in'60's say "international silver company" nothing else not plated or silver by itself.?????

Sterling is .925 .900 is coin silver

Not true.

WRONG - mate give correct advice if it says 925 it is sterling silver. if it says EPNS - it is electroplated nickle silver. omg