Could this be silver?

1Tim58

1Tim58

Active Member
Silver Stacker
Forgive me if this is obvious but I am very new to metals. This brush was given to a family member 30 years ago and told at the time that it is valuable and that it is silver. It has no markings on it at all. Neodymium magnet doesn't stick at all, I gave it two bicarb foil baths which took a lot of the black off. I lightly scratched that shiny spot on top with metal scourer. That 1oz bar shows the difference in metal colour. The metal is very dark grey and the more I look at it has me thinking pewter or lead?

Edit..... I just performed an ice test using that 1oz bar as comparison, two same size ice cubes and the hair brush melted first!

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Hi Tim, in my limited experience, pieces like this are often silver (or plate). A (very unscientific) test my dad trusted in his years as a buyer and seller of Ye Olde Things was: rub it with your thumb, and if you make a shiny spot and the black comes off onto your skin it is silver.

I'd advise refraining from using anything too abrasive to clean it up and I'm sure some old hands here will be able to suggest other methods to use.

Over to the experts :)
 
HoldMeTender said:
Hi Tim, in my limited experience, pieces like this are often silver (or plate). A (very unscientific) test my dad trusted in his years as a buyer and seller of Ye Olde Things was: rub it with your thumb, and if you make a shiny spot and the black comes off onto your skin it is silver.

I'd advise refraining from using anything too abrasive to clean it up and I'm sure some old hands here will be able to suggest other methods to use.

Over to the experts :)
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Cheers for the info. Rubbed and rubbed in one spot and nothing came off. Did perform an ice test however and it melted faster than the cube on the one ounce bar.
 
How hard did you look for a hallmark? Cleaning it with Silvo could expose some inscription or hallmark that you didn't see before. You've already scratched it with a scourer so worth a shot.
 
Go to your LCS who has the sigma analyzer. The test is non destructive and take less than a minute.
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Found this old spoon, any one could comment on what metal it is... guess it’s not silver
 
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