I have sterling silver sheets, wire, and scrap from when I took a jewelry class in the early 1990s. It’s approximately 13.5 standard ounces. What is this worth melted down? From Deanna in Destin, Florida

Hi Deanna,

Silver used in jewelry making such as wire, sheet and clasps is typically 925 sterling silver so it probably contains 92.5% silver.  Unfortunately, components and scraps are often not marked so we would need to run analytical tests to determine the exact percentage of silver in your items.   For evaluation purposes, let’s assume all of the material is sterling silver.

Given this, you can use our silver value calculator, plug in the market price of silver, and calculate its value.   *Today the price of silver is $18.35 USD per troy ounce. Note that standard ounces or avoirdupois ounces are different than troy ounces (1 troy ounce = 1.09714 avoirdupois ounces). Below is a screenshot of the calculator showing the steps you would go through to find the market value of 13.5 avoirdupois ounces of 925 silver.

Based on these figures, the market value of your silver is $208.85.  Of course, the calculated value provides market indications of what your silver is worth if it were in an investment grade form.   As a refiner, we will need to refine the silver, put it into sellable form, and execute the transaction with a buyer.  As such, we typically pay 75% of 925 sterling silver value by weight.

Note: The price of silver changes daily. The given price may not reflect the current price of silver.