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 SMP Silver Salon Forums
 Silverplate Forum
 How do you tell if a piece is Silver or Plated or something else?
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| Author | Topic: How do you tell if a piece is Silver or Plated or something else? |
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algomaangel Posts: 10 |
posted 11-09-2003 10:16 AM
  
[01-1299] I first want to say how much this forum has helped me. I have a piece I am not sure about at all. It is what I think is a called a silent butler. It looks like a frying pan divided into 3. The divider comes out so it can be cleaned. The piece also has a lid with an ornate handle. It is starting to tarnish now. It is marked as shown in a prior post, but now I am wondering if it is silver, silver plated or something else entirely. Can anyone help? IP: Logged |
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Kimo Posts: 1627 |
posted 11-14-2003 05:16 PM
Real silver can normally be identified by either having the words sterling (925/1000 pure), coin silver (normally around 800/1000 parts pure, or the numbers 950, 925, 830 or 800 (signifying the parts out of 1000 pure), or it can have certain hall marks that some countries have set through their laws as signifying silver. The British ones are perhaps the best known of these. Silverplate tends to have marks such as EPNS which stands for eletro plated nickle silver, or the word quadruple plate, or sometimes special hallmarks. There is much more to it than this and you really need to get yourself a good thick book with all of the possible marks you can see on silver and silverplate. Even though you may get an item that has these marks, you may also need to double check if it doesn't "look right" since these marks can be easily faked. Ultimately the only way to ever be 100% sure is to test it. Any jeweler can do this for you, or you can learn to do it yourself and buy a silver testing kit and have someone show you how to use it correctly. To check to see whether it is solid or plated you will need to make a deep enough scratch somewhere inconspicuous to expose the metal under the surface. I don't have all of the reference books and others on this forum who do can correct me, but the marks you show in your other post don't ring any bells as to this being either silver or silver plated. The number is most likely the maker's stock number for that particular item. IP: Logged |
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