Silver tea service set -- metal questions

Today, I bought the following tea service set at a garage sale:

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I paid $25 for it. The seller told me that it was made of solid sterling silver, bt I did not believe him (and hence got my price instead of asking price). I bought it purely because it was looked good and I assumed it was made from some cheap metal that was silver plated.

Upon getting home however, I tried to make some deep scratches in an unconspicuous place in one piece, and to my surprise, despite making a deep scratch, the metal beneath was still relatively soft and silvery looking. The stamp on the service pieces refers to some silversmith.

The set weight about 7 lbs 6 oz, according to my postal scale.

I have no intention of selling the set as it would look great in our house.

I have two questions:

  1. How can I check if it is really silver

  1. How can I clean the dark silver safely and effectively.

Thanks

i
Reply to
Ignoramus11713
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Do like Archemedes, measure how much volume it displaces, and calculate its specific gravity. Pure silver has a specific gravity of 10.49.

Tarn-X

Gary

Reply to
Gary Coffman

Thanks, I just cleaned it using the electrolytic method, details at same site

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i

Reply to
Ignoramus11713

Your simple test may or may not tell you anything. Often the base metal under silver plate is the same color as silver, so when the silver wears away you can't really tell. Sterling silver is an alloy commonly used for such things, along with silver plate. It would be highly unlikely your items are made of pure silver. Sterling is a composition of 92.5% silver,

7.5% copper. Scandinavian countries used different alloys of silver and copper, some as low as 70% silver. The marks on your pieces should tell you what they are made of. Look for a number like 925, which would be sterling, 900, which would be "coin" silver, Also look for hallmarks, such as a lion. Tell us what you see marked on the bottom of your pieces and we may be able to tell you what you bought.

If you are interested in a non-destructive test for silver, there is a solution that will react blood red when applied to silver, a mixture of distilled water, nitric acid and potassium dichromate. Nitric acid alone will also react, leaving a cream colored surface on the item being tested if it is silver, but a green reaction if you test a scratch through a plated item. None of this is difficult, but if you haven't seen the tests done before you may not understand what you are seeing when doing the tests. If you can provide more information I may be able to tell you more. .

Harold

Reply to
Harold & Susan Vordos

Whatever you do, don't use tarn-x. It destroys the value of real silver, if by any chance that was what you actually bought. Sterling acquires a patina by being rubbed with normal silver cleaner over many years, it's a pain in the ass to do but it's the only thing that will really preserve the value of good silver.

If it's plate it's far less important, as most plate has very little monetary value, and the silver is gradually removed with polish.

For what it's worth, unless it's marked sterling the odds are incredibly high it's plate. Are there any marks at all?

Reply to
Richard Ward

First, there are lots of base metals they put electroplate over, so merely not seeing copper when you scratch it is no big deal. The base metals are often soft. You sometimes see electroplate over German Silver, which isn't really silver at all, it's a soft, easily cast alloy with a silvery color.

Can you post a link to a photo of the mark? If it says E.P. followed by anything it's electroplate. The same thing with quadruple plate or Sheffield plate. If it was made in the US, it would pretty much either say Sterling, or if it's fairly old it might say CS or coin silver. The name of a silver company doesn't mean it's silver, many companies sold both sterling and plate.

Reply to
Richard Ward

There is a label and a stamping "WM A ROGERS BY ONEIDA LTD SILVERSMITHS".

Nowhere it says sterling silver or EP.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus23169

Look up WM A ROGERS BY ONEIDA LTD on google. You get some interesting results.

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Reply to
mrbonaparte

...and low-end, at that.

I feel sorry for someone when they *think* they have a great item at a bargain (based on a seller lie), but the signs were there.

Kris

Reply to
Kris Baker

Solid sterling silver is marked as such and plated is also marked as such. There are very rigid standards for marking such materials and violations are often harshly dealt with to the manufacturers. That doesn't mean that somebody can't mark the parts with the wrong marks but they first have to get rid of the proper marks. I'd do a google to see what the proper marks are as well as the manufacturer that made the set.

-- Bob May Losing weight is easy! If you ever want to lose weight, eat and drink less. Works evevery time it is tried!

Reply to
Bob May

At least I paid $25 for the set, and it looks great after cleaning. I figure that it is worth at least $25. And By The Way, I did not believe the sellers when I was buying. I started believing them after I did some testing.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus23169

If you like it, that's all that really matters. Retail value is meaningless if you like something and intend to keep it. How well something would sell only comes into play if you bought it to resell it.

I buy lots of stuff that I could never resell for what I paid for it. I buy it because I like it, what someone else would pay for it is irrelevant.

Reply to
Richard Ward

This is almost certainly silverplate.

Do not assume that it is worthless because it is has no scrap value.

An attractive plated tea service, in good condition but no other collector value would probably sell in an antique shop for around $300.

Paul K. Dickman

Reply to
Paul K. Dickman

Look for the letter 'EPNS' stamped VERY small somewhere and looking like an assay mark - ElectroPlated Nickel Silver

Andrew Bromley, Kent, UK

Reply to
Andrew Mawson

I have some Rogers plate, that was my mothers. If it doesn't say "sterling" on it, it's plate. Some times Sterling will have a decimalised purity number instead.

Steve Rayner.

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Reply to
Steve Rayner

how about ebay? I generally sell stuff on ebay, mostly military surplus. I do not plan to sell this service on ebay because I like it, but I am curious as to how much it can fetch.

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Reply to
Ignoramus23169

did not see any...

i
Reply to
Ignoramus23169

I looked on eBay, and the vast majority of Rogers sets sold for around $25-30. As for the the $300 in an antique shop estimate, when I had booths in antique malls in the Dallas, Texas area, Rogers teapots and coffee pots generally went for around $20 or so in antique malls, and could be bought at auction for under $10 each. The set you've got wouldn't bring more than $75 in most shops in my area, and generally wouldn't be found at all except in antique malls and fairly low end shops, as modern plate doesn't sell particularly well. They're common as dirt, because damn near everyone got one as a wedding present, and no one ever used them.

That being said, it really doesn't matter. You bought it because you liked it, you couldn't buy it new for anywhere near what you paid for it, and after paying shipping fees you couldn't buy it on eBay for what you paid for it. Forget about what it's worth, and enjoy it.

Reply to
Richard Ward

Never! Worst thing you can do to sterling or plated silver.

Reply to
Tony Cooper

thank you Richard...

i
Reply to
Ignoramus23445

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