I bought these a long time ago. They are 7 inch long and have Australia Shilling, one 42 and the other 43... are they silver plated? Do the handles look silver plated? Someone has these on ebay for 150 but they look better than mine. Are they even worth that much? Magnet does not stick to them. TIA for your help.
Looks like a bit of home made shed work. What the stems are made of depends on what the maker had handy. Even if they were silver stems the value would be small, coin spoons are not uncommon and ones featuring coins from the 40s are the commonest of all. I suspect there was a cottage industry making these things for the visiting troops, which in Australia would be mainly sailors. The commonest are made with Dutch coins. Australia is not common but not valuable due to lack of demand. The only comparables ever worth looking at are sold items. People have many wierd ideas about what their stuff is worth.
I would think they were made as souvenirs, for troops or others, As AF said, what people ask is irrelevant, its what they sell for that matters. I would think a more reasonable price would be $20 - 40. Depending on where and how you are trying to sell them.
I have sugar tongs made from Turkish coins too. The coins are silver but the handles aren't. This sort of thing was made for tourists all over the world. Unless they're solid silver they don't tend to be worth much.
From 1942-1945, Australia was a major base for allied operations in Asia. The Americans set themselves up there for the duration of the Pacific War (and American troops were often ridiculed as being overpaid, oversexed and over here...) So yes, I'd say these were made as trinkets for the Americans...but considering HOW MANY Americans there were...I doubt they'd be worth a great deal. That doesn't mean they're not interesting, but probably not valuable.
American troops were often ridiculed as being overpaid, oversexed and over here I'd say envied rather than ridiculed.
Just as a note, dating on pieces including real coins can only be 'no earlier than' the dates of the coins. Australian shillings were sterling until 1945, only 50% silver from '46 to '63 - the maker may have used the coins at a later date because of their silver content, and not necessarily as a souvenir, could also have been made just as a novelty item. The 'magnet test' is useful only in determining whether an item is or isn't made of a magnetic metal, silver being one of numerous non-magnetic, but the stems on these are likely silver too. The set on eBay, with larger 1936 and '43 florin bowls are definitely souvenir spoons, and may have bit more value than yours, but suspect the sellers are a bit optimistic... Personally, think yours are rather nicely made for that type of item, though not on a level with this fabulous circa 1892 set from Shreve & Co., a dozen each of salts, underplates, spoons, pepperettes, and a pair of sugar tongs, the coins dating from 1764 to 1891, shown in Heacock & Johnson's '5000 Open Salts': ~Cheryl
Thanks everyone for answering!! If they are worth 10$ that would be cool!! Yeah I thought the ones on ebay were way off. You guys are great.
My dad added Epsom salts to cheap Italian wine, recorked it, and sold it to the US troops as champagne.
