Sterling Beer/Wine Mug???

Ok, I will do that. I use dawn at home so that's perfect. Thanks for your help

 

Sorry, I am 20 mins west of Niagara Falls in Canada

 

I thought I had posted my comment but it must not have loaded or something. This is after a very light Wash with dawn dawn oap as @Bakersgma suggested. I reinspected the mug and absolutely no signs of a hidden hallmark or engravings of any kind. The patena does not look nearly as heavy in the natural sunlight and I was able to thoroughly inspect it top to bottom. I may use a cleaner to do the base but it was clear to me (after looking in sunlight) that I will not discover a worn stamp. I don't typically buy silver without markings but I am confident it is sterling and just not stamped (which is uncommon I know). Because I had already dug into the bottom I did it again in the same spot and acid tested it again. Creamy white. The same colour as a stamped sterling baby spoon I use as my reference item. So where do I go from here!!!? I appreciate all the help I have recieved so far. Thank you all very very much.

 

Well, good luck to you, JTR. It certainly looks better than before, but I remain skeptical that it is sterling. If you are planning to offer it for sale as sterling, I urge you to have it professionally tested. What acid did you use that gave a "creamy white" result for sterling?

As for "age," it's anyone's guess. Nothing stands out as indicative of a particular style unique to a defined time period. Probably 20th century, but that is just my gut talking.

 

Is there any helpful ways to assure it's even sterling acid from what I know?
I'll lay out what I know (you helped me a couple years ago with another piece if I recall properly and value your opinion)...

1- There's is no flaking of Silver plate anywhere
2- All indents are black and not green, copper or yellow
3- The weight just feels right
4- It's old. Not super old but old so maybe there's a chance it's not stamped. Or a one off.
5- I tested it the same way I have for a number of years and after testing, I haven't been disappointed in my results when selling (I hoard it now)

I'm just a young guy that loves silver. I don't know everything about the pieces that I have a good feeling about but value the opinions of people that have the experience I lack. I can basically promise it's solid. Im not the type of person to have to stroke my own ego. I'm here to learn. 20th century..Any idea of the country of origin?

I'm just super interested in this piece because I love looking for silver. I bought a plate in 2010 for 99 cents. Sold it for $180 (probably for a night out with my friends) but I've been hooked for nearly 10 years. My wedding band is $60 dollars worth of silver because that's what I wanted haha.

I'm lacking the time destinctions and odd hallmarks. This is a great place to learn a couple things. That is my goal here. Plus it's larger than most things I find.

 

My phone's being weird. Sorry for the typos

 

I am going to have it checked out. If you care to know, I will let you know what I learn.

Thanks for everything.

Take care

 

I used 18k gold as my silver acid has expired.

 

It looks a lot better than it did.

However it is missing the gleam of silver.
You need something like Wright's, Maas, Simichrome, or the like.
The wadding doesn't work quite as well. It also leaves a lot of scratches.

The Sunshine cloth is better suited for jewelry.

Is it heavy for it's size?

 

Good morning @clutteredcloset49. I am going to look into some of these options mentioned. And polish it up very soon.

As for the weight, its pretty heavy for its size.

 

Calling @MrNate, Silver Wizard to the rescue

 

Then I am going to go with the rest and guess this is silver plated.
Silver is a light material. Always surprises me when I weigh a piece, how little it actually weighs out.

 

Ok great, thank you for your response take care

 

Nice looking mug! To me this doesn’t look overtly plated. It looks like it could go either way to me. However it’s VERY heavy for a cup. I’ve never had a silver mug but all the silver drinking vessels I’ve come across are usually quite light in weight. I’ve never seen one even close to that heavy. My experience isn’t incredible but it sounds very heavy to me for being silver. That would be my biggest concern. I didn’t know you could use 18k Acid to test silver, interesting and good to know if true. I haven’t acid tested silver much but when I have I don’t have good luck on a stone. Gold works great on a stone but unfortunately with silver on the piece itself seems to work better. Some plated goods, especially the older ones have a pretty substantial layer of silver. You really have to file into them to get a clean reading. Otherwise you can get a false positive. Leaving the acid on for a long time will eventually eat through plating too. I once got a positive for a quite a while until the acid finally got down past the heavy plating to the base metal. Good luck! Hope it’s the real McCoy. Nothing better than cheap silver.

 

@J Dagger - Good morning and thank you for your response! I would have to agree that the mug is very heavy for silver but it is also very robust and on the larger side as far as mugs go. The side walls are about 1/8" and the base of the mug is even thicker. Surprisingly, the handle is hollow.

I appreciate that you went against the grain (half way at least haha) in saying that it doesn't look plated. I personally have gained enough knowledge over the years to know it is not plated. It's just a matter of finding out more about the mug. I think I'm going to take it in to a reputable person/company and see what they say because without hallmarks, it's very difficult to know what I have found here. I'll post my findings.

All the best to you and thanks a million for your response!

Jon

 

JTR it’s an interesting piece. I stared at your images for some time trying to draw a conclusion. When I have pieces that don’t quite add up, I test a bunch of times with acid. And even then I’m left with a few pieces I consider inconclusive.

I can’t speak for the origin, but the one thing I can’t quite get past is that there are no obvious marks. That’s the really odd missing ingredient here. I agree the metal doesn’t quite have the usual tone I would expect for some silver (possibly lower than sterling). The handle of all things looks the most promising; good joint construction and apparently hollow based on the indentation.

Heavy weight isn’t a good thing always, I wish I could hold the mug in my hands and feel the bend of the metal.

I think an ice cube test would be perfect for this. My recommendation: flip the mug upside down, and put an ice cube on the bottom. Now wait a few minutes and feel the edges of the cup, have the sides gotten super cold really quick? Does the ice cube spin around or does it stall out on the melting process really quick? If this is some sort of pot metal base, it’s also a very poor conductor. Only copper bases mimic sterling for the ice cube test and this one definitely doesn’t look like copper.

 

Hello @MrNate and thank you so much for your great response! I just tested the method you had suggested and am pleased with the results. The mug was room temp (about 75 degrees F) and I placed an ice cube on the base as directed. The mug became very cold, very quick. Infact the mug had condensation about half way down it in less than 2 minutes. I will say though, I only have oversized ice cube trays so it makes cubes 1-3/4" square. So the cube was touching more surface area than a typical sized ice cube would. I am going to purchase a regular tray first chance I get. I tried the same method with a stainless pan and the cube melted much slower in the pan.

As far as rotation, it took about a minute to start spinning clockwise. There are pretty significant dents on the bottom of the mug so maybe it was hung up at first? After about 3 minutes the melting slowed down and the mug was very cold - top to bottom. The handle was as well but not nearly as cold as the rest of the mug. That about sums up my results. I wish there was an option for a video clip but I don't see it here. Thanks again for your time!

 

This is the inside. Looks very well used. It is filled with horizontal etches from a spoon I'm assuming. There is also a seam that runs vertically, top to bottom where the handle sits.

 

after a quick cleaning

 

In the ice method of testing, the ice cube will react in the same general way when place on a silver plated surface. It is in no way unique to solid silver alloys.