Does "PLATED" always mean its plated?

Hello again,
I bought a salad serving fork & spoon with wood handles at a yard sale for $1 when I saw "STERLING" on them. I weighed the metal part at 90 grams. I then saw it says "PLATE" above "925".

I acid tested them and they show silver. Also took a small peice and it reacted like silver on a magnet although I don't put too much on magnet testing. I heavily filed an area and acid tested it on a stone and it still shows silver only.

I cut it open and still tested only silver.

Sorry for the poor picture but the left stamp is the maker mark, the center item on the stamp reads what looks like "ADD"? over "PLATE" over "925" and the right side stamp is "STERLING". What does "PLATE" mean?

 

Hard to make out the marks, but in Spanish sterling silver is called PLATA, which can be confusing to us English collectors. Looks like it is sterling silver, should be interesting to know why all the different marks.

----------------Edit

P.S. Thank you for adding the clear photos and now we are finally seeing what I thought, since I have owned Mexican sterling silver pieces marked this way. Glad it is for scrap anyway, and this lets us members know there was no need for those negative and critical reactions.

 

Can you please get a better close-up of the marks, and a picture of the whole spoon?

 

It would be "nice to know," but the scrapper doesn't care who made it - and that's all it's worth now.

Filing into it was bad enough, but cutting it open?

 

@Bakersgma
Am I missing something here? Don't understand the comment.

 

I think what she means is, that it's only worth scrap now that it's been ruined by cutting, filing into it, etc., so it doesn't matter who made it now because it would only be worth scrap.
But I think the poster is just double checking if it is sterling or not.

 

"I cut it open and still tested only silver."

Would you buy a "cut open" salad spoon to use on the table?

 

NO, but the fork might still be nice....lol
Maybe we should ask first, not after experimenting and having the piece lose it's value.

 

Why did you mutilate that poor thing? What did it ever do to you?
Do I see Peru on the left?


It looks like it says plata, Spanish for silver, sterling, Spanish for.....sterling. So it is likely to be sterling silver, if I am reading it correctly from Peru. Peru is a país de plata, a silver country.

 

The fork was mangled anyway and the spoons handle is cracked. I bought them purely for scrap. I don't collect vintage or antique silver. I just hoard silver and that is why I ask at this forum to possibly help me I.D. something so I don't destroy or toss an item that I don't know.

If something is collectible, I will try to put it back out there for someone that would like to have it and maybe make a couple $s or at minimum, break even.
With the help of this picture, which is far better than my vision and a mag. glass, I believe it may say "PLATA"?
Thanks again for your help,
Karl.

 

Yes it says plata, Spanish for silver, and sterling. Sterling silver.
Underneath plata it says 925 which is the sterling silver grade. That means it contains 92.5% silver an 7.5 % other metals, as all sterling silver should.
The mark on the left is 'hecho en Mexico' (a bit sloppy, no n or o), made in Mexico, another silver country.