Featured Tone, the most important evaluation of silver items

Good evening all,

I've been very busy so sorry for not posting as much as usual. I've been finding lots of treasures, I just haven't had space in my schedule to make good posts. I got something in the mail today I wanted to share with you, and hopefully impart some knowledge on aspiring silver hunters. As the title suggests, this is a post about "tone"...To be clear about the type of tone I'm referring to, I pulled up Meriam-Webster's definition:

Tone: (1): color quality or value, or (2): a tint or shade of color

My own definition of tone as it relates to silver: your ability to discern the probability or likelihood that an item could be real silver based on how the material looks. This game is all about your power of observation. I'm often scrolling through 1,000's of photos, and I'm looking for subtle clues to discern between "yeah that's probably plated" to "omg I'm almost certain that is going to be sterling". My goal is to help you with a list of clues I've accumulated over my time hunting for silver, and to share a recent find I purchased based on one photo and a bit of luck.

Simple tone observations (generalized):
Real silver: the metal often gets splotchy/uneven as it tarnishes
Plated silver: the metal often tarnishes in a uniform manner

Real silver: as the metal tarnishes, it starts to look dull/soft/gray
Plated silver: as the metal tarnishes, it starts to look brown/red especially when plated copper

Real Silver: the metal has lots of imperfections/scratches/scrapes and dings because the metal is very soft
Plated Silver: the metal looks very shiny and almost like chrome. The metal looks sturdy and heavy

Real Silver: when it tarnishes, it looks hazy/foggy/glowing when photographed
Plated Silver: the metal gets darker when it tarnishes in a uniform fashion

Real Silver: little pockets of tarnish appear in the cracks/crevices of the piece. And little random dots of tarnish form on the piece
Plated Silver: tarnish is much more uniform and covers large parts of the piece

Real Silver: Often, the shape of the piece creates greater sturdiness/rigidity for soft metal
Plated Silver: Often, the shape of the piece comes from the easiest way to manufacture

I have more observations I would like to share, but the above notes are my basics about silver tone. With those ideas fresh in your mind, here's the item I received today. What I can tell you, is I never asked for additional photos, and I couldn't be certain what I was getting, but based on the observations above I took a small financial risk of $18 and ended up with a 282 gram international sterling bread dish. This was certainly a financial gamble, but I hope to convince a few daring souls that armed with the right knowledge, you can give yourself a much higher probability of success if you become a student of silver tone. Would anyone like to try to evaluate tone as I have above based on the photo below? And does anyone want to offer any other hints/tricks/clues based on the look of a piece to discern between plated and sterling?

 

I'll take a stab. I enjoy your lessons very much. Tarnish in the crevices.

 

And because there are no yellowish or white-gray scratches in the center of the dish. It would help to see the edge from the back. The edge is also thinner than the average piece of plate, unless it's that cheap modern Chinese junk.

 

I see the little random dots of tarnish

 

Going by your helpful hints, I'm with Kiko and Marie, tarnish in the crevices and random dots of tarnish. Also the colour looks good to me, for $18, I'd be in
You have been missed Mr Nate, your posts are informative and fun

 

Mr Nate, this is such a good post! A man I saw frequently at auctions (pre pandemic) only bought sterling silver. Yet, he checked every piece with a loupe. One day I said to him, "Can't you tell sterling from plated, yet?" Well, it turns out he couldn't, after checking literally hundreds of pieces over the years. If I knew how to get in touch with him, I would certainly refer him to this post.

Detecting the tone of sterling is always helpful at sales when there are items with foreign hallmarks.

 

I saw some silverplate and pewter lots in an online estate auction. I'm wondering about one or two pieces, but most of it looks like pewter or silverplate.

https://aarauctions.biddercentral.com/servlet/Search.do?auctionId=4456&itemId=113600#

 

Here's how it turned out after a polishing:

 

Your selflessness in teaching other members of this forum is Truly great. Though where I live there is no hope of getting any silver, I still love reading your educative post.

They are truly a delight and filled with information and pictures to explain what you mean.

Thank you so much.

 

Tarnished silver vs. tarnished silverplate becomes really easy to spot, when you've seen as much of it as I have. And I agree, silverplate tarnish often has a more uniform look to it, and is more...varied in colouration... because of the copper/brass tarnishing underneath, as well.

When I worked in a thrift shop, we used to get literally boxes of silverplate. You got very good at spotting real silver, when you spent hours literally up to your elbows in imitation silver. Little wonder that silverplate has almost no value these days.

 

Maybe when compared to sterling, but I would not say "no value". Over the years I've sold a LOT of silverplate flatware, serving pieces like bowls, pitchers, etc. Silverplated trays were very lucrative, better money if a full coffee/tea service.

When I was still in the mall, I had a whole section of silverplate flatware serving pieces that I could hardly keep stocked. People love old cake knives, pickle forks, demitasse spoons, fruit spoons, fish servers etc. I polished them and tied them with dainty ribbons and they flew out the door with hardly any theft.

On holloware you have to look for the good quality stuff, not the flimsy junk. The base metal is thicker and so is the silver plate. Brands like Gorham, Wallace, most Sheffield is what sells well.

 

I wish I had your luck. We couldn't get rid of it fast enough. You literally couldn't sell it for love, or money. S'why when I sell stuff online nowadays, I never buy silverplate. It sits forever.

 

Bravo and many thanks. Thought it was plated but signed in late. You definitely have THE Eye!

 

I stay away from it also, it's a hard sell for me!

 

As a silver collector who also dealt heavily in silver (and has also scrapped silver at times), I continue to find it odd that so many are so dismissive of silverplate. Solid silver certainly has intrinsic value that isn't really a consideration in plated pieces, and there is a lot of silverplate with little to no value out there, but the design and desirability of a piece is what a collector values, and is willing to pay for. Certainly you'd want solid silver as opposed to plated in comparable pieces, and there's always the security in its scrap value, but to my thinking, quite a bit of silverplate has good resale value, though I can definitely understand not wanting to take a chance on it if you don't have the eye or the knowledge to recognize potential value. It seems odd to me that nice pieces would be rejected just because they're plated, but other collectors will pay well for items made of ceramic, glass, wood, plastic, paper, etc., even though they have no real value in the materials, only the finished products...

I'd brought this up a few years ago, here's the thread with some examples:

https://www.antiquers.com/threads/silverplate.27172/


~Cheryl

 

While a lot of what you say is certainly TRUE, I think the issue people have is that a piece made of brass, or wood, or porcelain, or glass...is...just that.

It's made of wood. Or brass. Or Porcelain. We know what it is. And we can appreciate, and value it, and enjoy it, as it is, for what it is.

On the other hand: Silver-plate was always intended to be "second best". It was what you bought when you couldn't afford to buy actual silver. You bought it for the LOOK - the superficiality of it - not the substance of its construction. And as pretty as it might look, everybody knows that sooner or later, it's going to wear out, and lose value. Solid sterling, by comparison - won't.

Everybody knows that EP isn't the real thing, so why should they buy it, when they could find a similar item in actual silver, sometimes for exactly the same price, or just a small amount more? They see buying silver, as opposed to EP, as being more value for money, more worth it.

Given the opportunity, of course most people would buy the better-quality item, if they could afford it or justify the price. And because it's worth more, it's easier to sell later, should they choose to. People don't want to buy EP, because they think - well, it's not ACTUAL silver, so why should anybody else want it? And if they don't, then how the hell am I going to sell it later, should I choose to?

People feel more secure in buying solid, rather than EP, because they know that they CAN sell it, if they want to. That isn't guaranteed with EP, because people don't like buying second-best if they can help it.

THIS is why EP has the reputation that it has. Or at least, that's how I see it. And I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of others do, too.

 

I come to it from the pint of view as a seller and when shoppers look at something silver colored the first thing they as is "Is it silver?". If it's plate they are not interested.

I do agree some of it is well made and lovely, but that does me no good at a sale so I pass it by

 

Most plated stuff where I am has to be lotted up in bulk to shift it. Silverplated tea sets at tag sales just sit there until the price comes down to giving it away. That goes for quadruple plate too. Sterling on the other hand is sterling. It sells.