Selling the Family Silver to Pay Bills

In today’s economy, many people are doing just that, cashing in. They are selling their unused or broken silver chains, earrings, coins, charms rings, teapots and even silver dental scrap in order to pay for groceries and other bills. 

But could you sell your ancestor’s wedding silverware?

Sentiment aside, quite a few bills could be paid off by selling the infrequently used family silverware. Also because of its weight, silverware provides a higher payout than broken silver chains and earrings. 

Is it a good time to sell the forks and knives?

The London Silver Market fixes the price for silver and its value fluctuates. Thursday, silver was $39.91 an ounce, down from a 31 year high of $49.21 an ounce in April of this year.

How do you know what you have and what is it worth?

More people than ever are counting on the Attleboro Jewelry Makers, 35 County St. for a fair deal when selling their gold or silver. On any given day the staff is busy explaining exactly what type of silver their customers tote in and its value.

Not All Silver is Created Equal

The highest valued silver is fine silver but most silverware is not made of fine silver. That would be impractical because fine silver is too soft to be used as eating or cutting utensils. More than likely, a person's silverware is sterling silver, hardened silver made by mixing the silver with alloys like copper or nickel.

In order to have a knife blade strong enough to cut, most silverware utilizes stainless steel. Handles of the knives are not solid silver. They are often filled with pitch or plastic filled to keep cost down. Therefore because the knives are not entirely silver, they will have to be weighed and valued separately.

Older silverware sets may have less filled silver pieces, so a greater weight but may have been made with lead alloys. The lead content makes this silver unhealthy for use with children. Today, stricter health regulations prohibit the use of lead in silverware.

Today’s high price of silver means that newer silverware sets is being made with filled silver pieces, in order to keep prices reasonable.

Cashing In or Walking Out

The number of people going to the to sell their silver and gold has increased.

A girl, who wished not to be identified, recently brought in two grocery bags filled with silver.

She wasn’t sure if she would sell the “maybe I better keep” bag filled with her grandmother’s 44-piece set of wedding silver. However the second bag she would definitely sell. It was filled with tarnished silver serving pieces that she had picked up here and there at yard sales.

Emptying the second “definitely will sell bag” full of silver onto the counter, the customer day dreamed about how she would spend the pile of the cash she was certain to get by selling stuff she never used.

The first item from the definitely will sell bag was an ornate gold sugar spoon, surely worth a bundle of cash. However the spoon turned out to be gold plated with no monetary significant monetary value. It was pretty but had only sentimental value, so back it went into the bag.

Next, two sturdy silver meat forks with an unusual handles were examined. They turned out to be antler handled utensils, museum quality pieces. Who would have guessed? The silver part of the utensil had "melting it down" value, however the staff member urged the young girl to keep these two pieces, so they, too were returned to the bag.

Soon the “definitely will sell silver bag” had been refilled and became the “definitely will return home bag.”

The young customer, still optimistic for a big payday, opened the “maybe I better keep” bag.

Silverware Serves Another Purpose

For those customers who are hesitant about selling the family silverware, the Jewelry Makers staff will urge them to sleep on their decision before selling anything. 

Nancy Young, owner and operator of the Attleboro Jewelry Makers formerly designed pieces of Tiffany Jewelry. She works with customers to design a piece of jewelry out of one or more of their silverware pieces so that customers, who sell their silverware, still have a heirloom piece in memory of the set.

The time had come to place the 44-piece set of 1950 Gorham, Camilla design silverware on the scale.

And the value as melted down silver is . . . $1,363.38. An enviable amount certain to pay off quite a few bills, but the customer decided to sleep on her decision. 

Out the door the customer went toting the same two bags filled with silver that she came in with, not one piece sold. Perhaps sentiment did get in the way of paying off the bills.