For this blog posting, I've decided to put a quick reference guide out there for the novice who is not sure whether their silver is real silver (referred to as either Sterling, Continental, or Coin Silver), or Silver Plate (often referred to as Nickle Silver, EPNS, Silver Soldered, EPC Silver on Copper, Alpaca, and of course Silverplate). Some of these marks can be downright confusing, while others are so obscure you would never realize that they mean an item is silver unless you're an avid collector. Heck, most dealers don't even know many of these marks unless they specialize in silver.
One quick note: When we speak of Sterling silver, we are talking about silver that is of a specific purity of .925, or 92.5% pure. This is the silver standard for modern American silver, as well as pretty much all English silver (with the exception of Britannia which is 95.8%, but somewhat scarce). Many other countries use silver of a purity between 80% and 95%. For simplicity's sake we'll refer to these as Continental Silver. Coin silver is typically used to describe antique American silver, typically pre-1860, before we adopted England's Sterling standard.
This is by no means a complete, or even extensive list. These are just some of the more common (or more tricky) marks that we encounter every day in our buying:
American Sterling Mark for Tiffany & Co
A typical American Coin silver mark. Many pieces of earlier american coin will not be marked with the word "COIN" but will simply have the makers mark stamped in the silver. Typically a last name, or possibly initials and a last name.
A more modern American Gorham mark, but you will also find some Gorham coin silver out there as well.
An example of an American SILVER PLATE mark. 1881 Rogers is the company name, not the date of manufacture! They were purchased by Onieda, so you will sometimes see both marks.
This is a typical Chines Export silver mark. Typically 90% purity, with one or two chop marks and sometimes two or three initials. You will sometimes see a "90" as well. Be careful, German silver plate also uses a "90"! Earlier Chinese Export will use English Pseudo Hallmarks. Do a quick google search for more info on Pseudo Marks on Chinese Export Silver.
Mark from a piece of Japanese Meiji Period Silver (circa 1890)
Mark from a more modern piece of Chinese Export silver. The use of the word "Silver" is more common in modern Chinese and Asian silver (usually seen on silver post 1940). As a general rule of thumb, if a piece only says "Silver" there is a decent chance that it is silver. If it says something like "German Silver", "Brazil Silver" or "Nickle Silver" it is typically some type of alloy and not really silver at all.
A modern Japanese Silver mark.
A couple of UK silver marks, the top is for Sheffield England, the lower is for Edinburgh, Scotland.
This is a typical Iranian mark. Note the 84, which is a unit of silver measurement referred to as zolotnik, and is was commonly used throughout the Middle East, Persia, and Primarily in Russia. 84 is the equivalent to .875 purity.
A typical German silver mark (not "German Silver" which not really silver). The Crown, Half Moon and 800 were used post 1886. There are thousands of marks used pre-1886.
Well, that's it for tonight. Again, this just scratches the surface, but its a good place to start. We'll expand in future blogs!
Regards,
Chad Busby
