Question about testing silver.

I have a wine coaster that I assumed was silver plate. There are no marks of any kind, not even a maker's mark. When I tested it, there was a strong positive for silver. I tested another piece that I know for sure is silver plate and that had a very weak positive in comparison. I tested the wine coaster again using the 18K solution, that gave an even stronger positive than the silver solution. The silver plate piece barely gave a positive with the 18K. I'm still not convinced it is sterling. Is there another test or another way to test it to be sure? Thank you.

 

The construction of the upper portion is almost surely tin. It is cast. I'd bet it bends easily.

That most likely began as a candle holder within the last two decades.

 

It doesn't bend easily at the top or the bottom. I tried to pull the bottom lip out where it's dented and couldn't get it to budge.

 

It's a perfect size for a wine coaster and it does look similar to other wine coasters listed on ebay and other websites. Although, I could not find a match to this one.

 

Tester....." Silver , what is 2 plus 2 ?"
Silver......" oh, that's easy , it's 22 ! "
Tester,,,,,," that is incorrect.....you are not Silver ! "

Disclaimer..... This is not an accurate test !

.....................................

 

Is there someone you can take it to that will test it for you?

 

I've never seen a piece with that pierced work pattern yet that wasn't plated. Unless it was chrome.

 

I'm still thinking along these lines

and a bottle fits

 

fwiw, that's a VERY common form for nice silver plate wine bottle coasters here.

 

The test done at most jewelers/scrappers is to make a deep scratch and test that with acid. Testing just the surface is useless. The scratch and acid damages the piece, but if you want to scrap it anyway it doesn't matter. I never do that, however.

You can also do a home test of specific gravity. This requires an accurate scale, and suspending the piece in water. Its kind of a PITA to set up, but once you have the setup you can run several pieces that you have questions about. Specific gravity would work well on this piece, but doesn't work for weighted pieces, hollow pieces or pieces with non-silver handles, etc. You need to be sure you don't have trapped air bubbles in or on the piece.

I have heard that there are jewelers/scrappers with XRF (Xray fluorescence) testers that is also supposed to be non-destructive, but I have never found anyone with one of these myself. But that is a good option if you can find one.

 

XRF testers are fantastic, giving a detailed analysis of all metals in an alloy without damage but are so expensive at the present that they would be hard to justify buying unless you have a professional need for one. I'd love one for Christmas but $20,000 would be too much to spend on what for me would be essentially a toy.

They do not work on organic (carbon based) materials so no point tryiing it on the cat.

 

Do you have any experience with these? I've read conflicting things, whether they work on just the surface - in which case silver plate would need to be scratched same as for acid test. Do you know?

 

I have not got one but my usual bullion dealer has and for a £1 donation to the local hospital,per item, he has tested many questionable items for me over the years with no problems. I have not really bothered with silverplate because I always knew stuff was plated, it was mostly for undefined gold and silver items, often asiatic.
He seems happy enough wiith it.
I am sure the makers could tell you about silver plate but the impression I had was that the reading was more than skin deep.