posted 04-29-2005 07:23 PM            

My own feeling is that the switch had more to do with the economic factors of supply and availability. I stand to be corrected by numismatists, but I believe that the silver dollar enjoyed scarce circulation during the 1860s - in part due to instability in the relation between silver and gold. So, if silversmiths had previously used coins as their source - the source was drying up!

During the same decade, however, there was an enormous expansion in silver mining. According to one source, from less than $50,000 worth of silver produced in 1849 (primarily as a by-product of gold mining) the value climbed to $10,000,000 by 1864. Even so much ended up in Europe to pay debts incurred in the Civil War, and additional silver had to be imported from Mexico. So perhaps silversmiths were buying in their raw material directly from the mines, and perhaps here the standard was higher? Certainly falling silver prices would make the change from coin to sterling financially less noticeable.

posted 04-30-2005 12:43 PM            

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It was often customary in this country to mark silver: coin, pure coin, coin silver, dollar, standard. However, these terms could be misleading since the coins used were usually foreign and of uncertain silver content... Most silver, marked coin, etc., shows a silver content of 850 to 900-1000ths...

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In Gorham Silver

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Sterling had been the standard in England since 1300. The fact that Gorham aspired to sell wares in England may have been a factor in their going to sterling.

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In Tiffany Silver Flatware Dr. Hood writes

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Charles L. Tiffany realized, nevertheless, that the British sterling standard was the one to be emulated and early on strived to make sure that Tiffany's silverware was upgraded from 'coin'... to sterling.

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posted 05-05-2005 06:07 PM            

Searching through older postings, I see several previous postings have dealt with the theme. In American coin silver
WEV provided the figures of analysis of silver content of several Californian pieces. Several were marked "sterling" but proved to be significantly lower:
Vanderslice; Comstock teaspoon, 1875: 742/1000
Schulz & Fisher; 5 Star teaspoon, 1880: 881/1000
Schulz & Fisher; Faralone teaspoon, 1880: 898/1000
So, even if the piece was marked "sterling", it ain't necessarily so! Has this analysis been extended to other areas?
WEV also listed several accounts of silversmiths with barrels of Spanish dollars in the first half of the 19th century.
Elsewhere, When Coin Evolved to Sterling
Richard Kurtzman cites an 1868 article about Gorham which apparently used coins and added pure silver to bring the standard up to sterling.

So, how quicky or slowly did home-mined American silver find its way to silversmiths?

The Comstock Lode yielded $400 million in silver and gold between 1859 and 1878 peaking in 1877, with the mines producing $21,000,000 of silver that year alone. Certainly much of this silver was initially exported - some to pay war debts, but more perhaps to buy in gold. However the 1870s saw a widespread fall in silver price due both to over-suppy and falling demand. In 1876 a committee reported to London's parliament on the depreciation of silver:
"Your Committee are of opinion that the evidence taken conclusively shews that the fall in the price of silver is due to the following causes:
"(1) To the discovery of new silver mines of great richness in the State of Nevada.
"(2) To the introduction of a gold currency into Germany in place of the previous silver currency. This operation commenced at the end of 1871.
"(3) To the decreased demand for silver for export to India.
"It should be added:
"(4) That the Scandinavian governments have also substituted gold for silver in their currency.
"(5) That the Latin Union, comprising France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, and Greece, have since 1874 limited the amount of silver to be coined yearly in the Mints of each member of the Union, suspending the privilege formerly accorded to all holders of silver bullion of claiming to have that bullion turned into coin without restriction.
"(6) That Holland has also passed a temporary act prohibiting, except on account of the Government, the coining of silver, and authorizing the coining of gold.

"It will be observed that two sets of causes have been simultaneously in operation. The increased production of the newly discovered mines, and the surplus silver thrown on the market by Germany, have affected the supply. At the same time the decreased amounts required for India, and the decreased purchases of silver by the members of the Latin Union, have affected the demand. A serious fall in the price of silver was therefore inevitable."

So did the falling need for silver for monetary purposes translate into an increased demand for silver objects? I'm certain the answer is yes.

And the switch to sterling standard, I am still convinced has something to do with the switch of sources from Mexican dollars to silver ingots from American mines. At least one of the millionaires from the Comstock Lode, John W. Mackay, was originally from Ireland, did this then have any bearing on the standard of purity which he chose? And furthermore, the difficulties of mining the Comstock Lode gave rise to significant technological improvements - could not such a climate have contributed to similar improvements in purity superior to that obtained in Colonial Mexico?

posted 08-20-2005 03:30 PM            

Additionally, based on the illustrations and text of Dr. Hood's book on Tiffany flatware, I see no indication that the Mackay service is marked sterling at all. In fact, the only marks mentioned or displayed are Tiffany & Co - Pat. 1878. I should add that Dr. Hood was very consistent in indicating all the marks on flatware featured in his book. May I assume that the Mackay service did not bear the sterling mark? I mean, it's not as though they had to impress anybody, so I suppose the quality stamp would have been superfluous.

Secondly, I was reading about the Bailey, Banks & Biddle Co. in Rainwater's Encyclopedia..., and ran across an interesting quote from the Bailey & Company History of Silver, Ancient and Modern

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[Bailey & Company] claim the distinction of having first introduced silver of the full British standard of 925-1000 the American standard being but 900...

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