Featured Time for another edition of "let's play a game"

Good Evening Everyone!

I'm sorry for posting so much lately, but I've been doing a lot of hunting. If anyone finds the frequency annoying, please let me know and I'll tone it down.

So, for tonight's edition of let's play a game I want to put you in my seat for a moment and test your skills as a silver hunter. Here's the information you have to get you started:

Title: Sovenier travel spoons
Price: $50
1 Image:


Using your "silver sniffing skills" you decide to contact the buyer. You ask the buyer if they could show you the backs of the spoons, however they regrettably inform you that isn't possible because all the spoons are glued and tied in place. Being the industrious hunter you are, you instead ask them for close up photos of all the spoons. Sadly, when you are online, you don't get exactly what you ask for, and you have to work with limited information. Here are the photos provided to you:







So, that's basically all the information you have to work with. The seller has indicated they would be willing to remove the spoons from the display case and ship them to you for $58 total. Here's the game:

1. Does the first photo look appealing or unappealing to you (and why)
2. Are there any clues in the 3 photos provided?
3. Do you pull the trigger for $58 with this information or pass on it (assume you aren't local and can't go look at them in person)?

 

The one with a rearing horse has a silver mark so I would be tempted to take a gamble. They are not the usual souvenir spoons and are most likely all silver of some standard.

 

I would have given it a shot as well,the odds are in your favor at least some are silver.

 

don't apologize Mr Nate, your posts are informative and fun, keep on posting

good eyes Miscstuff

I'm with johnny, I'd give it a shot too, there should be some silver in there

 

Heh, unfair advantage for me - have collected and dealt in souvenir spoons for decades...

~Cheryl

 

So did you buy them or not? Might mention that one of the spoons usually sells for around half the total cost of the lot...

~Cheryl

 

Yup, I bought them and opened the package tonight. I wanted to give folks a chance to respond, and then show what I got. I'm very happy with the purchase and I look forward to learning some more about the spoons I got (many marks I don't recognize)

 

Good - there are quite a few plated pieces, but the cost of the lot could easily be covered by three of the spoons...

~Cheryl

 

More than anything, I'm excited to join the "enamel club"

 

Now you're setting a test for Mr. Nate. Think I could rule out many & see some I would like to see better if playing this game, but wouldn't know the collectors' pieces unless they punched me in the nose. (And as long as none of the others did!)

 

72 older spoons for 58 bucks...........no brainer....
I like the Scottish Thistle for silver.....& the design..may even be Orkney Island..

 

I'm partial to the rhino, for the humor, not silver content.

 

The handle of the one with the Shinto gateway is very similar to something I have that is not a spoon. It is marked simply 'silver'.

 

Just a Scottish thistle, doubt it would be specific to the Orkney Islands - and it should indeed be sterling, likely Edinburgh marks...

~Cheryl

 

Seconded. The Egyptian ones are a good bet; a lot of the old ones were some grade of silver or another. The horse is probably .800. The Greek columns are probably 800 too, and the Central American dude is probably .900 or higher. I'd put good odds on the Norwegian ones too - .830 or better. I like the World's Fair spoon, but only because it's a Fair souvenir.
Odds are some of the ones on the top row are legit, but we can't really see them.

 

Cheryl may not have singled out 3 spoons as special based on silver content.

 

Here are some thistle spoons, the first with the same design as Nate's:

1) Edinburgh, 1956, Francis Howard
2) Birmingham, 1908, Joseph Cook & Son
3) London, 1891, Saunders & Shepherd



~Cheryl

 

The Norwegian spoons are a mix of silver and plated, and if I recall correctly, the NY Worlds Fair is plate (Oneida, maybe)...

They would be silver, and there are probably several that could form a trio of over $60, would need to see better images of the enamels, and the spoon that probably has the highest value of those I can see isn't actually a souvenir...

~Cheryl

 

I was wondering about the one on the far left here:

 

I'd like a better look at it too - pretty sure the one next to it is an Australian souvenir, usually plated, but was also produced in silver...

~Cheryl