Featured Interesting zippo from WWII

Found this WWII silver custom made case Zippo lighter.
Did some research and possibly found persons name who used to own it.
Wonder if there is a way to confirm that this is in fact correct name.

 

That is an awesome case!

 

Is it actually silver? From what looks like verdigris in numerous places it is probably brass plated with silver.

 

Not sure. I tested in one spot and it show up as silver. Will re test again tomorrow.

 

All zippo cases made during WWII were made of STEEL, because BRASS (the usual case-material, even today) was needed for the war-effort.

If it really was made during WWII, it would be steel. If it was a pre-war lighter, then it would be brass. So far as I know, they didn't start making gold and silver zippo-cases until much later. I mean that's not to say it couldn't be a custom-piece, but I have my doubts...

 

I love it. Very Ceylon, with the Sinhalese lion.
Verdigris can appear on silver of lower finenesses, like .800.
But if a silver case was custom made in Ceylon, I would expect a higher grade. On the other hand, Asian silversmiths often worked with the silver the customer handed in for the specific commission. That could be anything.

 

I already established that this is not original Zippo case. This is custom made case with 1940's Zippo insert. I will test it again for silver today.
Also I've seen silver custom Zippo cases from this period. In fact I have one somewhere at home.

 

I agree, with such an overly Ceylonese theme, it simply has to be Ceylon made, and not just engraved there.

 

Beautiful!
Can we see a photo of the bottom with the Zippo logo?

 

There is no Zippo logo. This is a custom made case for Zippo, not by Zippo.

 

I tested it twice in two different spots and it still comes up as a silver. Also inspected lighther under magnification and there is no other metal showing anywhere.

This is from another forum.
"On coins that are less, say 90% silver ,10% copper, verdigris can occur along with the silvercorrosion compounds. (Cited from: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/verdigris-and-gold-and-silver.46355/)"

What i think happened is that coin silver was used to create this case.

 

Melting down or reusing silver or gold coins to make other things was very common in those days. I've seen bracelets, cufflinks, belt-buckles, belts, watch-fobs...the list goes on, and on, and on, and on...

So if the case is testing as silver, but has no official markings, then yes, I'd say old silver coins were melted down to provide the metal. Stuff like that definitely happened in those days and is the most likely explanation!

 

Most jewellery from Africa, the Middle East and many other parts of the world was made from coins because of the reliable silver fineness. Most popular was the Austro-Hungarian Maria Theresia Thaler (MTT), first minted in 1741, with a fineness of 833. Silver in many countries was or is based on the MTT.
Here is a Yemeni pendant with an MTT, the coin itself was shown as a status symbol, to prove the quality of the silver:

 

AJ is right. Since coins were of PROVEN GOLD or SILVER value, jewelry and accessories were often made of obsolete or foreign gold or silver coins, purely because their silver/gold content COULD NOT be questioned - It was there for everybody to see, which lent weight to their authenticity.

 

Another interesting custom made silver zippo case from the same period.