Another pair of spoons, one with three coins.

This is a silver Spoon with 3 Mexican coins dated 1872, 1890, and 1904. The coins are .903 fine silver, 5 centavos x 2, 25 centavos.




This spoon with the star at the top has a 1329 Moroccan 1/2 Rial, 5 Dirhams value. While 1329 in the Islamic calendar sounds exciting, it is actually 1902 in the Gregorian calendar.

 

The Mexican spoon looks like it was made by a drunk street vendor.

 

LOL. It *looks* handmade. Many other coin spoons look like they came out of a manufacturing facility. The handmade look gives it charm.

 

There's a big difference between handmade and street vendor "junk".

 

Hi,
Can not stand it any longer. PLEASE polish those spoons. Or send them to me I'll polish them and send them back. It really hurts my eyes.
greg

 

Greg. You're joking right? Have you ever walked into a quality antique shop and seen polished silver?

 

The low end junque shops may have blackened silver

The ones asking real money will always have it nicely polished

 

Hi,
Been polishing silver for over 70 years. Been to wonderful Expensive antique shops and always admired their polished silver. Been to little shops and if their silver is not polished walked out. Silver tarnish is NOT patina. Patina is the little tiny scratches that has come from years of polishing. Blackened unpolished silver is just tarnished and not patina. What is the sense of having tarnished silver?????
greg

 

We're going to have to agree to disagree on this one. I'm from the Adamstown area, Antiques Capital, USA. http://www.antiquescapital.com. Very rarely do I see quality vintage silver that reflects light.

 

Hi,
Things have changed. I went to Adamstown every weekend for years when I lived in Philly. Shiny silver always sold. Of course that was back in the 70s. Even antiquers row in Philly always sold shiny silver. Ever been to the Met in NY all of their silver is polished. Even poor people had their few pieces of silver polished. Who ever decided that tarnished silver is nice, times has changed.
greg

 

That was forty years ago. A good portion of our customers are other dealers. They buy silver that looks like silver that's a hundred years old, not something that was in a museum.

I'm confused. How are you comparing antique malls, where things are for sale, where people make their livelihood, to a museum? Maybe if you're talking about an auction house like Heritage or Stacks & Bowers, sure, but here, at Renningers, or Black Angus or General Heath's, no.

um. wow.

 

AAAAANNDD at this point I will throw in a question, for which I will probably be beheaded, and may have been asked and answered before here, BUT.......what about those "dips"??? The ones you dip the silver piece in a jar and it comes out pretty bright??? Do they do serious harm to the piece???? Just askin'......

 

Aquitaine, I've used those dips for jewelry for personal use, they work just fine. I've also soaked silver with baking soda and aluminum but, again, personal pieces, not for sale.

This whole cleaning discussion is academic anyway, what I'm trying to learn is an approximate value of these spoons to sell at retail.

 

But you see Gab...that what we do here....we discuss stuff...combining our collective knowledge and 'opinions' in an effort to help identify items for all of us to learn about.
For those looking for ' values ' , we try to help understand the item so that a fair market value can be ascertained from asking prices and current sales on line ...
Some members with specific knowledge of the market may offer up cost estimates, but this is not a site formed for giving out retail values.

Besides ...like you said " agree to disagree "......so if I say the Mexican spoon is worth $40....and another says $ 190....& another says $ 85 ...and you think it's more in the $ 275 range ....the site will devolve into a pissing match , where bitching and moaning will rule the day....and you'll walk away frustrated and empty handed........

 

Hi Aquitaine,
I have used the Dreaded Dips for pieces of completely blackened silver but never used the stuff for routine polishing. I also do not recommend the baking soda and aluminium soak. I have seen too many pieces ruined by it mainly silver plated items. A lot of people do not know the difference between solid silver (what ever percentage) and silver plated items.
greg

 

komokwa, I get what you're saying, but personally I take everything in stride. I wouldn't be empty handed - I still have my spoons

Since you brought it up, I actually do have prices for these spoons. We had them in a mall for what we think is too long and they didn't sell. So either the right person didn't see them yet or they were priced too high. We're guessing they were priced too high because we had a lot of spoons and none have sold in four years.

 

if none sold....i'd think it's a combination of both....price and market..!