Differentiating Between Silver and Silver Plate?

npost2017

Differentiating Between Silver and Silver Plate - ornate silver handled basket bowl I have some of my great grandmother's silver serving pieces that have different markings on the bottom. One says EG PLATO EPNS with a crest below and Made in England below the crest. One reads Assay Canada, EP COPPER Lead Mounts 1001. Another BIRKS No. 38. Most have the EBNS, Made in England. Any ideas?

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Pghgirl40
Bronze Feedback Medal for All Time! 196 Feedbacks

May 23, 20182 found this helpful

Best Answer

We inherited a ton of pieces like you are describing. The others gave really good suggestions for identifying silver vs plated.

I will share my way of dealing with the pieces after I identified them....

1. If it had sentimental value (either real silver or plated) I kept it.

2. If I had no sentimental value (sadly most had no sentimental value to me) and it was real silver I watched the silver market and sold it off. Silver is low right now...but watch the market and it does go up.

3. For the silver plated pieces...you can always go to Ebay completed/sold and type in the name of the item and see what the market price is. Sadly...from experience I know most pieces have almost no value for their intended purpose.

Where I have found ways to make a little money on them is two fold...

1. Batch a bunch of them together (use a USPS one price box and fill it up) and list it on Ebay for under the title Steampunk Assembledges Silver Plated (and then list the pieces....like LOT OF FORKS or LOT OF PLATTERS). Artists use them for cool assemblage pieces.

2. If they are too heavily tarnished or damaged to be used by an artist, talk to your local scrap metal dealer and see if he/she will buy them for scrap. We have one dealer locally who takes items like this. I have a pile in my basement waiting for a trip to the city for just such a drop off. You won't get much, but to me it makes me feel like I am reducing my carbon footprint just a smidge. The extra money is always helpful!

Hope you find this helpful!

15mhhm15
Diamond Post Medal for All Time! 1,298 Posts

May 21, 20180 found this helpful

You will find a lot of information here:

www.silvercollection.it/dictionaryEPNS.html

Step 1
EP is electroplated then "something" the other material

Step 2
EPNS stands for Electro Plated Nickel Silver

www.silvercollection.it/silverplatehallmarksp.html
www.lifetimesterling.com/.../DIFFERENCES,default,pg.html

cybergrannie
Gold Feedback Medal for All Time! 949 Feedbacks

May 21, 20180 found this helpful

Those are really good web sites as they will give you information on what the marks represent.

As to what you plan to do with this information is something else entirely.

Do you plan to keep your pieces or were you thinking about selling them?
Of course, sterling silver is more valuable but some pieces may be valuable even if they are silver-plate as the age will make a difference in the value of items like this.
Some of your pieces may be rare so be sure to do some research on each individual piece.
Research is tedious but very necessary with pieces like this. eBay is a good site to check but not the only one so Google each piece also. Use as many words as possible to describe your piece and reduce words if you get no information.
Here is a link to some items on eBay that may give you some ideas about how to research.
www.ebay.com/.../epns-made-in-england
This is an interesting article on this type of silver.
stuffafterdeath.wordpress.com/.../
You may want to ask for a free appraisal for one or more of your pieces (only ask for info on one or two pieces at a time).