Let's play a game again!

7 looks like flat out chrome from here.

 

I wana see them once you polish them up

 

Of course

 

Great thread @MrN8! I always love learning from your threads. So the waviness you mentioned, are you referring to the shiny area looking kind of distorted like a fun house mirror? Forgive me if I am dense. Second question: Does a yellow tone (or other color) mean it has possibilities of being silver or not/why? TIA.

 

These are great questions!

1. What you said about the fun house mirror is a perfect explanation of what I was trying to describe. When a piece looks very uniform across the surface, in my mind I imagine the base metal is rigid (like copper would be). But when I see that subtle wavy look, I hope that I’m looking at a soft metal (and hopefully silver).

Tone: I think I could write a book on the importance of tone to do what I’m doing. It’s one of the most important clues. While not foolproof, here’s a few observations that I utilize every day regarding tone:

1. plated pieces often tarnish in a uniform manner. The entire sheet of metal slowly changes from silver to brownish from the copper base.

2. contrasted with sterling tarnish. I imagine a sterling piece forms waves/clouds of subtle tarnish. Sterling gets cloudy or hazy first (so to my eye it looks soft) and then you start to see a non uniform yellow. When the tarnish really starts to kick in, it gets very dark in the creases of a piece. It’s not usually uniform. The piece doesn’t turn brown usually.

If you want to try your skills, try out the new game I posted I’m the forum last night. Focus on wavy indicators and the tone stuff I mentioned and see if you can sniff out the sterling pieces in the photo.

 

Let me add a few more thoughts, because your questions really were great. Let's try to work systematically on this game based on tone and texture:

Item 1: Looks heavy (bad). Fails the tone test to me, it looks very brown like copper would. Very uniform tarnish. I want to see deep/dark tarnish in the cracks and crevices and it's not there. If I was really interested in this one I would ask for a photo of the bottom. Even if there weren't marks, it would give me a chance to look at the feet and I would either see quality manufacturing indicators or clumsy joints from the manufacturing process. And the pattern on the dish looks like a manufactured pattern, not hand carved which you would see with most sterling pieces. Analysis: very low possibility of being sterling.

Item 2: Fails the tone test to me, but with all the picks from others I might have overlooked this one. The handle size looks most promising, but the texture of the metal looks too smooth to me. If sterling, I wouldn't expect the shape of the base for proper support and I would expect to see scrapes and scratches being a soft metal. The base looks wrong to me, the tarnish looks too uniform. Analysis: moderate to low possibility of being sterling.

Item 3: Really hard to say much without asking for more photos. Generally getting really big sterling pieces in these types of lots is low. Just based on experience, I'm guessing a big chunky tray like this is going to be plated 95% of the time. I don't waste much time asking about something like this. The rim looks brown to me, so I would just be guessing but would conclude plated and not waste much effort.

Item 4: fails the tone test completely. Nothing looks like silver here. Uniform tarnish, dark brown. Looks 100% manufactured.

Item 5: This passes the tone test in a few areas, but it's hard to say right now. What I like: i like the unevenness of the tarnish on the base of the bowl. But contrast the tarnish color to items 8 and 10 and it's a hard call. I do see the waviness of the metal on the base. The big issue I have with item 5 is it looks heavy, and that's not a good thing in my analysis. Silver manufactures for the most part want to conserve the precious metal they are using...Unless you are Tiffany, why would I make a 500 gram bowl that I can sell for $90 (obviously old prices) when I can make the same shape and size bowl using 180 grams of sterling and sell for the same price? I hope to be wrong on 5, but for now I'm saying plated. With that bowl, it could go either way, my analysis really isn't conclusive but it doesn't need to be because of the other two items.

Item 6: Right out of the gate, it looks heavy, I don't see the soft tone, I see a very sharp and "stainless steel" looking surface. The uniformity of the tarnish on the rim looks bad to me. Heavy, no wavy metal, no soft tone. Analysis: high probability plated.

Item 7: Not even sure we are dealing with silverplate on this one. Initial guess is very new silverplate, stainless steel or pewter. Sterling would look like this bowl when recently polished, but based on the state of the other pieces I find it very unlikely this seller polished anything. Not worth the time to try to look deeper because there isn't really a tone analysis to do.

Item 9: based on the photo they gave me, no indicators of being sterling.

Item 11: The tone looks very much like copper plate, but the big indicator to me is the edge/lip of the piece. To me, this screams of a manufacturing process where they stamp/form the piece in some big heavy machinery. It just looks manufactured to me. Like they said "well let's slap a pattern on the edges so it doesn't look as ugly" in the dying breath of the silver manufacturing industry.

Item 12: clunky, heavy, poorly formed base, lack of details on such a heavy piece doesn't make sense, uniform tone, it screams of plate so not worth my time to research.

I hope this help to give you some insight into the analysis part. I'm not consciously thinking of these as I'm looking over photos, I'm just letting my eyes wander and my mind to consider the clues. Most of the time, I'm looking for a reason to ask more questions to confirm my beliefs. Every now and then I'm able to solve the puzzle without extra info, but most of the time I need to confirm this stuff because it's easy to be wrong. When I inquire, and they send photos, they are telling me information that the rest of the market doesn't have, and that can be very valuable.

 

@MrNate, great replies! Cannot wait to delve into this after we get back from errands. I really would like to get a good "eye" at this like you have. So many times I see pieces and often wonder if I am missing a great deal.

 

@MrNate Wow, I know this is a silver forum, but the above^^ is pure GOLD! Make this thread private immediately, so my competition cannot learn this stuff. LOL. I tried your method a few months ago, looking at CL/FB groups but I really felt it was a stab in the dark, so I did not purchase any. Now that I know more, I see I have been approaching this the wrong way altogether. Like a lot of things, I know just enough to be dangerous (to my wallet). I am hoping my life slows down enough to try your method again. I gather this lot cost you about $100.
-If you had never seen the bottom of #8, just based on what you saw, how much $$$ would you have surmised #8 and #10 were worth?
-How many grams of silver would you have estimated was there, and then would you have multiplied that by spot value of around $25 now?
-If only #8, #10 are sterling, what will you do with the plated pieces, which are the majority of the lot? Do you put a lot up on eBay?
-When do you think you will get these? Dying to know if there is any more sterling in it. Living vicariously through this thread. Like a treasure hunt.

 

Great questions again. I really hope you get the chance to try again. Here's the answers:

-Price of lot: just under $100

-Value of #8 and #10 just based on what I saw: honestly for this one I needed the photo to confirm what I saw. It was just a hunch that what I was looking at could be real silver. Let's put it another way: if you said to me "hey i'll give you $1000 to figure out if that piece is real silver, could you do it"? The answer is yes, I could research a lot online and eventually I would find the pattern. But that takes time and energy. My method: if it's not too complex to solve the puzzle myself (think flatware lots) then I solve it without extra info. But what I do is I ask about anything that might be real, and let the seller make it easy for me.

-How many grams of silver would I have estimated: I actually did an estimate before buying, because I need to stay profitable. I actually underestimated (because they arrived today, and I'm very happy). I'll give the details below, but estimating weight is pretty important. Lot's of ways to do it, the best method is look up the exact same one when possible.

-What will you do with the plated pieces? I've decided not to talk about that on the forum anymore, a lot of people tried to offer me their advice and I just don't want to get into the plated pieces. It's in another one of my posts, but I don't want to re-stir that pot. I will say that you need to choose how to spend the time in your life, and everyone is going to factor the value of their own time and energy a bit differently...

-When do you think you will get these? Best question, because I got them today!

So....I'm batting 1000 on my analysis of this lot which is bittersweet (because who doesn't love finding unexpected silver). I am happy to report I was off on my value estimate, with the current price of silver I did better than I originally expected. Here's the photos, everything else in the lot was plated:

 

Yeah... you did OK. (LOL) That's about a pound of silver, for those who can't convert in their heads.

 

I realize you just got these, but what is that horrible black stuff on the front and back or #10? Any ideas? Ink?

 

It really does look nasty right? On closer inspection, it's not very bad looking to me. I think some liquid must have dripped on it that expedited the tarnish process. Whatever was on it wasn't very thick, and I expect it will come off relatively easy with polish.

 

Wow, nice profit and thank you for being so generous in imparting your knowledge to novices like me. Now I really want to go hunting.

 

I'll be interested to see and hear how successful the cleaning goes on that one.

 

I hope you aren't disappointed:

 

Those aren't just silver dishes; I bet those held Communion "bread" or they were used as offering plates. Generally offering plates have fabric linings, so I'd guess Communion. I wouldn't melt those.

 

Magnificent and amazing. @MrNate

I look forward to more such finds and quizzes.