What is this? Antique silver visiting card case?

That looks like a grain mill on the front. A lot of American pieces never had a mark to their names, and some artisan pieces still don't. Most Continental pieces from the era had some sort of marking. No clue about the Canadians.

 

I am familiar with coin silver.

 

Well Shangas, it was probably your blanket statements, quoted above, that caused Any Jewelry and Bear to point out the inaccuracies - it's just really in the interest of providing the correct information for all.

Regarding U.S. silver, there is still no requirement that it be marked - since 1906, only that it must be at least .925 if marked as 'Sterling', at least .900 if 'Coin', since 1961 it must also bear a registered mark if marked as precious metal. That said, while there is little regulation here, there is also little reason for modern makers to leave their wares unmarked, though, as pointed out, some artisans do sell unmarked solid silver, most often jewelry. At the time this card case was originally sold, it wasn't uncommon for pieces to be unmarked, a bit more trust involved if purchasing from the maker or local retailer, or might even have been wholesaled, with the retailer neglecting to place their own stamp.

Will also point out that while American Coin was officially required to be at least .900 silver in 1906, prior to that it varied widely in fineness (one study found anywhere from .750 to .975), especially on earlier pieces, depending on the source of the silver, which was not only coins but also pieces brought from other countries. By the time 'Coin', 'Dollar', or other similar terms were actually stamped as reassurance to consumers, well into the 19th century, the most common source was either stock silver or Spanish Dollars (legal tender in the U.S. from 1793 to 1857), usually later Reales with the fineness a bit over .900.

~Cheryl

 

I concur and said the same thing to myself for I don't know these things.

 

When we donated our house on Long Island, we donated a mass of letters and papers regarding the house as well. One of the more interesting was a draft of a letter written circa 1750 in which an ancestor noted that he had just had a certain amount of silver coins melted and recast as tankards and a chocolate pot - because he didn't need the money right now, and was "saving" it until he did.

There were other instances of this as well in our family. And that would explain the horror over the silver that the British forces looted from the house during the War of Independence. It wasn't just the fact that the spoons and forks were gone - it was that fact that the table silver was actually part of their net financial worth. It equaled money in the bank.

Samuel Pepys also makes reference to this practice in his diary.

 

My posts were about sterling silver. Not about any other grade or purity.

 

Cheryl, funnily enough, I bought a lot of silver brooches at auction last night. (More to follow on the Finds thread.) One was a Scottish Victorian silver pennanular - I rather hoard those. Gues what. Marked Sterling Silver as are a fair few of my others!