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Canadian_Nickle
Penny Hoarding Member
Canada
938 Posts |
 Posted - 07/29/2006 : 23:20:23
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anybody collect true scrap silver, like busted jewelery, old silverware, medals and trophies and such?
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realcent
Forum Admin
USA
246 Posts |
Posted - 07/29/2006 : 23:32:25
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I keep trying to buy old real silverware. I like going to Goodwills and Salvation Army (second hand) stores because I read alot and love buying books for under a buck.
Those places usually have a bin full of forks and spoons for about a quarter each. I always glance through looking for silver. I get excited because I see alot of silver, but when I look at it it usually says 'silver plated' on the back. A few times I have found pieces that didn't say silver plated, so I bought them only to do a little research online and find out that the company name on the piece was a silver plated maker. At least I was only out a quarter each time.
I also check out junk boxes at flea markets for silverware, jewelery, and stuff like that, but haven't had any luck yet.
Doug
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Canadian_Nickle
Penny Hoarding Member
Canada
938 Posts |
Posted - 07/29/2006 : 23:36:04
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Come to think of it, I actually have some scrap copper - a big coil (~40lbs) of heavy gauge grounding wire I bought so that a friend of mine could make me some chain mail with it. It's still sitting in the basement. Seeing as I bought it at just under spot 2+ years ago I guess it's turened out to be a good investment, even if it never gets made into mail.
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cakesea
Penny Sorter Member
51 Posts |
Posted - 09/25/2006 : 16:58:41
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| i go to yard sale around my house and i buy old silver spoon broken silver and gold chains and all that stuffone time i got a bunch of gold chains all of them hallmarked a 10k and the guy gave them to me forfree i got about 11 ozs of pure gold for free |
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n/a
deleted
143 Posts |
Posted - 09/25/2006 : 18:58:38
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quote:
Originally posted by cakesea
i go to yard sale around my house and i buy old silver spoon broken silver and gold chains and all that stuffone time i got a bunch of gold chains all of them hallmarked a 10k and the guy gave them to me forfree i got about 11 ozs of pure gold for free
if the gold chain is alloyed with pure silver, you would have an additional 15.4 ozs of silver too
holy crap, i don't know how much nickel i have to save to be worth that much of gold 
ok, i just did a quick calculation: if i can sell my pure canadian nickels for their metal content, i would need about 500 pounds(face of 2500 canadian dollars) of pure nickel to equal to the value of the 10k gold chain |
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cakesea
Penny Sorter Member
51 Posts |
Posted - 09/25/2006 : 19:45:12
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| yeah it amazed me when it happened he came out with a pile of broken chains in his hand and said i could have them i asked him how much he wanted for them and he said i could have them for free so i figured its prolly gold plated chains but i took them home and looked at them and all of them were hallmarked 10 k i was amazed |
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n/a
deleted
143 Posts |
Posted - 09/25/2006 : 20:17:36
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| maybe i should go to more yard sales than to the banks now, :) |
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n/a
deleted
73 Posts |
 Posted - 10/01/2006 : 06:25:31
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I tried sorting through the forks, knives, and spoons at my local good will. I took a strong magnet with me, anything that was magnetic I tossed aside.
Question is, if I do find silver plated utensils, what is usually plated in silver? If it is aluminum, it won't be magnetic at all and I'll think its pure silver, if they usually plate silver onto steel or whatever regular utensils are made of, they'd easily be magnetic enough it'd stick to my magnet.
I bought a flower bud vase at goodwill once, said it was silver (even on the box). Came home weighed it to be 8 ounces and I was like woohoo, 8 ounces of silver for $1, it was non-magnetic and seems best I can tell to be silver plated aluminum (I measured its volume and found the density of the vase, plus the fact nobody would buy the same thing on ebay for $10). If the utensils are all silver plated aluminum then the only use of my magnet method would be to more quickly filter out the obvious non silver and silver plated then I'd have to somehow try and determine if it is plated or not. Obviously pure silver would weight more but I doubt I have fine enough senses to comparison weight to pieces of similar size and I'm not taking a scale into the store as well  |
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Metalophile
Penny Collector Member
USA
320 Posts |
Posted - 10/02/2006 : 13:24:23
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I don't think the magnetism method is a good test. There are stainless steels which are non-magnetic as well. Best to look for markings indicating sterling silver.
Metalophile |
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pencilvanian
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
2209 Posts |
Posted - 10/02/2006 : 16:02:33
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quote:
Originally posted by eccentric
Question is, if I do find silver plated utensils, what is usually plated in silver? If it is aluminum, it won't be magnetic at all and I'll think its pure silver, if they usually plate silver onto steel or whatever regular utensils are made of, they'd easily be magnetic enough it'd stick to my magnet.
I bought a flower bud vase at goodwill once, said it was silver (even on the box). Came home weighed it to be 8 ounces and I was like woohoo, 8 ounces of silver for $1, it was non-magnetic and seems best I can tell to be silver plated aluminum (I measured its volume and found the density of the vase, plus the fact nobody would buy the same thing on ebay for $10). If the utensils are all silver plated aluminum then the only use of my magnet method would be to more quickly filter out the obvious non silver and silver plated then I'd have to somehow try and determine if it is plated or not. Obviously pure silver would weight more but I doubt I have fine enough senses to comparison weight to pieces of similar size and I'm not taking a scale into the store as well
One way to find out if something really is silver is to use a silver and gold test kit. The kit is a two bottle chemical solution that reacts differently to real gold and silver and plated gold or silver. To make sure the item really is silver through and through, you will have to scratch the surface of the object, on the back or bottom so it won’t show, and add a drop of chemical to the item.
You must be logged in to see this link.
This outfit offers the chemical test kit and an electronic test kit, for much more money, though.
You can probably find kits elsewhere on the web if you look around.
I did read somewhere that some jewelry makers don’t mark their jewelry if they are silver, due to the cost of registering their trademark or something like that, Native American jewelers mostly. |
Edited by - pencilvanian on 10/02/2006 16:06:16 |
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scrap silver?
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