Other · Tier S

Sterling & Silver-Plated Flatware

Look at the wear points — the back of the spoon bowl and the fork tine tips. Sterling wears silver all the way through; plate wears through to a yellow, pink or grey base metal, and that copper halo on a high point is a definitive worthless verdict in one glance.

Ag 92.5% ≈ 420 g/lb sterlingAg hollow-handle knives: only 8–20 g per pieceAg silver plate: ~0.1–0.5 g per teaspoon

eBay typical$700–2000per lb

Refiner pays$700per lb

Metal in it$798per lb at 4 Aug 2026 spot

Confidencehighof the yield figures

How to spot it

Sterling marks are STERLING, 925, .925 or STER; British sterling carries a lion passant plus assay office and date letters; continental marks are 800, 830, 835 or 900. Plate marks — all worthless for melt — are EPNS, EP, A1, AA, IS, Silver on Copper, Community, Rogers, Oneida, Sheffield Plate, triple/quadruple plate, nickel silver, German silver and alpaca. Marks sit on the reverse of the handle near the stem or on the base of hollowware. Sterling alongside weighted or reinforced means a thin shell over pitch or cement.

Metal content

Metal	Quantity	Notes
Silver	92.5% ≈ 420 g/lb sterling	grams × 0.925 ÷ 31.1035 = troy oz fine. .800 continental × 0.800; coin silver × 0.900
Silver	hollow-handle knives: only 8–20 g per piece	Handle shell only — never value a knife by its full 55–90 g gross weight
Silver	silver plate: ~0.1–0.5 g per teaspoon	Effectively zero — a few microns on nickel-silver that no refiner will separate

At 4 Aug 2026 spot prices that works out to $798 per pound of contained metal — Silver 420 g = $798. A refiner paying $700 returns about 88% of that, which is normal: refining costs money and the buyer takes a margin.

Safe removal

Working temperature: Handle filler softening 120–150 °C

Weigh everything on a 0.1 g scale and sort by mark before you talk to anyone, separating solid sterling, hollow-handle knives, weighted bases and plate. Do not polish before selling to a refiner — polishing removes silver and refiners buy on assay. For hollow handles, heat gently to ~120–150 °C to soften the pitch cement and pull the blade, then scrape the filler out. Never melt at home; sterling's copper oxidises and a home melt reduces what a refiner will pay.

Hazards

☠ Lead — dust more than fume

NEVER dry sweep or use compressed air on a scrapping bench. HEPA-vac or wet-wipe only.

🌡 Mercury

NEVER vacuum a mercury spill — it aerosolises it. Use a mercury spill kit or sulphur powder, or call your local hazmat line.

💨 Fumes, ventilation and open flame

NEVER burn boards, wire insulation or plastic. Ever.

🧪 Automotive & battery fluids

NEVER pour any of these down a drain or onto the ground. They are all regulated waste streams.

Before you scrap it

Check the pattern before the scale. Common, worn, incomplete or damaged sterling should be melted — the floor is historically high. Complete, named, desirable patterns beat melt by 30–300%: a matched 8-place Francis I service sells $3,500–6,500 against ~$2,400 melt, and Georg Jensen runs 3–8× melt. Completeness and matching are everything; sell serving pieces separately. Plate has no melt option at all, only decorative resale at $25–200 a set.

The common trap

Silver-plated is basically silver. It is not, by three orders of magnitude — a 60-piece plated service holds perhaps 10–25 g of silver total, spread across base metal that costs more to separate than the silver is worth, which is why refiners refuse it. Second: weighing hollow-handle knives whole — a 12-knife set at 75 g each looks like $1,580 and is really $230–450. Third: melting a collectible pattern, which is worth 1.5–4× melt intact and zero extra as a puddle.

Questions

How much gold is in sterling & silver-plated flatware?

Silver: 92.5% ≈ 420 g/lb sterling. Silver: hollow-handle knives: only 8–20 g per piece. Silver: silver plate: ~0.1–0.5 g per teaspoon. At current spot that is about $798 of contained metal per pound.

How do you identify sterling & silver-plated flatware?

Look at the wear points — the back of the spoon bowl and the fork tine tips. Sterling wears silver all the way through; plate wears through to a yellow, pink or grey base metal , and that copper halo on a high point is a definitive worthless verdict in one glance.

How do you remove sterling & silver-plated flatware safely?

Is sterling & silver-plated flatware worth more working than as scrap?

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