I have some silver flatware marked 70%, and one marked SSS. Is there ANY value at all ? From Gwen in Salem, Oregon

Hi Gwen,

We are not familiar with the marking SSS as an indication of the grade of silver you have. Usually sterling silver is stamped with an S or SS. An SSS might mean your item is stainless steel. Do you have any other information about this flatware piece?

To sell sterling silver, it must be 925 or 92.5% silver. All other markings mean that it is some other type of silver. Different markings can indicate that it was made somewhere else since each country has their own system for hallmarking precious metals manufactured in that country.

Is it an exact “70%” that is stamped on your silver? Or does it look like “.700” or “700?” All of these could mean that you silver flatware is 70% silver alloyed with 30% of some other metal (s). For items that we are unsure about, we run XRF analytic tests to determine how much silver, if any, is available to refine. If you have a large amount of this material, we would recommend sending us an item that we can test before you send the whole lot.

I want to sell my sterling silver flatware set.  It is Gorham Greenbrier brand and includes 12 5-piece settings with a butter knife and 8 serving pieces: 2 medium size spoons, 2 medium size forks, a gravy ladle, a sugar spoon and 2 larger size serving spoon/forks. What is all this worth and where can I sell it?  From Karalyn in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Hi Karalyn,

Depending on the condition of your set, you may have a number of options of where to sell your sterling silver flatware. The first thing we would recommend is to find out as much as you can about your silver tableware. Since you already know the make and brand is Gorham Greenbrier, look at the hallmarks and make sure you know exactly what they mean. Other things to look for are the age and country of origin.

Based on this information, you may be able to assess whether the set has much market value or if it is better to sell for its melt value. If you feel the market value is high, a local consignment shop may take them for you, but consider that they will probably take about 40% to 50% of the sale price as their fee to put your set in their store. They will also take into consideration quality, brand, collectability and the completeness of your set whereas precious metal refiners will only look at the weight and purity of the silver content available to extract.

So, if you don’t think your set has much market value or don’t want to deal with the hassle of taking your items to a store or selling on eBay or Craigslist, you can send them in based on the melt value. As a silver refiner, we will pay you on the actual value of silver in your set. You can use our silver value calculator to find the approximate value of your items at market price.

Take into consideration that knife blades are often made from stainless steel. Also, some knife handles and serving piece handles are weighted, meaning that they are filled with another material making them heavier and so they fit better in a user’s hand. This will affect the sterling silver melt value. We would recommend taking the knives out from the group and weighing everything else separately.

Also, silver prices do change regularly so we pay 75% of the fine silver content based on the market price of the day received and can typically process your sterling scrap silver and return payment within 1-2 business days. For delivery we recommend shipping with the US Postal Service’s flat rate shipping boxes. Please request the “Delivery Signature Required” option. Hope this was helpful to you!

I have approximately 250 pieces of sterling silver flatware. My grandmother collected it over 50 years, not from one set, but from everywhere!  There may be closer to 300 pieces. From Greg in Farmington, Missouri

Hi Greg,

Thanks for your inquiry. We always recommend weighing silverware first before you ship. If you are sure that all the flatware from your grandmother is sterling, then we would recommend separating the knives from the batch and weighing those separately from forks and spoons. We tell people to do this because many times knife blades are stainless steel, not silver. Also, knife handles are sometimes filled with another metal. This is done to add weight to a utensil so that it sits better is a user’s hand.

If you do not know for sure if all your pieces are sterling, we would recommend trying to separate your pieces into one pile where you can find a marking indicating sterling and another “unidentified” group. We would recommend looking for markings or hallmarks at the base of the handle or back of the utensil. The following markings indicate sterling:

• Sterling
• .925
• 925/1000
• .800
• 800/1000
• .900
• 900/1000
• S
• SS

It would be helpful if you kept your piles separated during shipment, in bags work fine. We pay 75% of the fine silver content by weight on 925 silver. Let us know if you have any questions. We can take all your silverware, but we can only pay returns on sterling silver.

Watch a video about sterling silver flatware and see a refiner take apart some silver pieces.

I have silver tableware with the following markings: .925 fine silver | 5 troy ounces | id # 060061 | silver town. What do these mean? And what is the value of my items? – From Sue in Newark, New Jersey

Hi Sue,

It is better to have too many markings on your silverware than no markings! Your markings can give us a good indication of the value of your silver. I’ll try and break it down.

.925 fine silver means that your items are 92.5% silver.

5 troy ounces is the weight. Troy ounces are different than your standard ounce that you can find on a postal scale. Average ounces or standard ounces are called avoirdupois ounces.

The formula to change standard ounces to troy ounces is as follows:
Standard Ounce Weight x .912 = Troy Ounce Weight

For example:
16 standards ounces x .912 = 14.59 troy ounces

ID # is the number given to the items by the manufacturer. I am assuming that silver town is the manufacturer, although I cannot find a record of the company. This information might be important if you were trying to sell these items for their retail or collection value instead of their melt value.

We can offer 75% of your tableware’s fine silver content by weight. However, keep in mind that many times the knife blades are stainless steel as silver is too soft to create a reasonable cutting device, obviously this decreases their melt value as steel is not a precious metal. On heavy items like tableware and silverware, we recommend using the US Post Office’s flat rate, priority mail boxes because you can fit a lot of material without worrying about the weight. For more information about refining silverware, visit our website. Hope this information helps!

As one of the largest silver refiners in the U.S., we process thousands of different silver items every year.  One of the most common is silver flatware.  In today’s less formal world, many of you apparently just don’t have a need for that set of sterling you inherited or those silver candlestick holders you got as a wedding gift years ago.  Check out this video where we explain some of the issues related to valuing silver flatware and weighted items.