Old Silver is Worth Much More Than its Weight

So much silver is being sold for weight and there is a danger that some important pieces may be lost forever. Before you sell your silver for weight, you should pass it by some antique dealers first to see if your silver may be more valuable for its artistry and craftsmanship, its age, rarity or historical significance.
Silver also has its fans among collectors. A lighted cabinet glittering with silver curiosities can be impressive and very beautiful. Collectors know that antique shops are still the best places to find the most interesting examples. What a shame if they were to find that so much of the good stuff had gone for melt.
You don’t sell Tiffany or Georg Jensen silver for weight, of course. Don’t sell handcrafted Mexican silver from the 1930s and ’40s, or old Irish silver, or any Russian silver at all. Do you know how old your silver is? Could it be Georgian, from the late 1700s? That would certainly be worth more than its weight.
Is your silver coin silver? That contains less silver than sterling (.900 instead of .925), but it is valuable as historic Americana, made only from colonial times until around the 1840s, and pieces by certain silversmiths can be very valuable.
Not all American silver patterns are created equal, either. The top ten patterns include: Gorham’s Buttercup, Chantilly, and Strasbourg; Kirk’s Repousse; Towle’s Old Master; Reed and Barton’s Francis I, and Classic Rose; Wallace’s Grand Baroque; and International’s Royal Danish.
Check the web sites of Silver Queen and Replacements Limited. Of course, they charge a premium of about 20 percent as a sort of built-in finder’s fee, but you will get the idea that some flatware patterns are definitely worth more than their weight.
Silver is marvelous stuff. Sure it has to be polished, but you can do that watching TV, and it’s one of the few chores in life that’s so instantly rewarding. Silver is romantic; it glows like moonlight. We should be amassing more of it, not getting rid of it.
Arthur Schwerdt, a certified appraiser, is the author of “The Antique Story Book: Finding the Real Value of Old Things,” and co-owner of The August Farmhouse Antiques on Route 9 in Swainton. Send your comments, questions and appraisal requests to: aschwerdt@cmcherald.com.