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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;MrNate, post: 3410078, member: 5515&quot;]So with this find, 2021 has obviously started off nicely in my hunt for silver! Here&#039;s a few extra observations and then the polished photos of the tray. </p><p><br /></p><p>-I had an interesting observation when I picked up the collection; for those familiar with acid testing silver, you know the professional way to test silver is to take a scrape sample, to test the scrape sample and observe the color using a paper towel. Well, the &quot;fast&quot; but destructive way to test items is to apply acid directly on the metal. For all the trays without handles, someone had previously tested with acid (likely the person I bought them from) but for some reason hadn&#039;t acid tested the tray....</p><p><br /></p><p>-I&#039;m just guessing here, but if there was any reason they wouldn&#039;t have tested the tray, it&#039;s because of the <u><b>beautiful word PLATA</b></u>. Notice the marks on the back of the tray say PLATA at the bottom? Well let&#039;s start by saying that these marks are very clearly STERLING silver marks; the mark on the bottom left &quot;169&quot; is the registered maker number for silver export, and the eagle on the right indicates this tray was made in Mexico City (credit to spratlingsilver website: <a href="http://www.spratlingsilver.com/hallmarks.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.spratlingsilver.com/hallmarks.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.spratlingsilver.com/hallmarks.htm</a> for teaching me this). So my theory, and absolutely just a guess, is that seeing the word PLATA they assumed PLATED, but in Spanish PLATA = SILVER!!!</p><p><br /></p><p>The lesson to me is that tuning your eyes to identify regions and styles of manufacturing can lead to tremendous purchases. I hope you&#039;ve enjoyed the details, here&#039;s the 2,560 gram tray all shined up:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]302222[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]302223[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]302224[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]302225[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]302226[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]302227[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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