Featured Silver or Shill’ver

Found this little Chinese box at a yard sale the other day. Probably too good to be true. One mark does indicate silver. I’d bet they currently mass manufacture very similar items out of an alpaca type metal and call them silver. The stones used look a little nicer than what might be used now and it has a nice overall look. Part of me holds out a little hope. The clouds on the top look great, the smile on the face not as much. That blue/green under the missing stones is probably never a good sign though. Any opinions? Ultra modern silver wannabe or vintage and possibly real silver? Bought at a can’t lose price at least.

 

You can run the marks through Google Translate.

Debora

 

I did get a translation on the marks. I just don’t necessarily trust them. One is “pure silver”. That’s not an unusual mark for an Asian silver item as far as I know. I don’t put it past Chinese manufacturers to use it on base metal.

 

Great look either way.

 

The box has a long enough flat surface you may be able to take a small rare earth magnet you can by a small one online for cheep if you have a regular small magnet give it a try it might have enough magnetic attraction. hold the box at an angle steep enough for the magnet to slide silver has a slight magnetic attraction and the magnet may slide slower on silver. I say may only because the metal is thin but it should slide more slowly on silver.

 

Its beautiful and Id bet it was silver .

 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0CqyCM2R9KE

 

I do have a powerful REM. I got it for testing metal long ago and haven’t actually used it in years. I’d fear this was copper based if not silver which is not magnetic. It’s worth a try though and I had totally forgotten about that option. Thanks for the reminder.

 

The color looks right, but while I've never seen that mark faked you never know.