# Lifestyles & Discussion > Personal Prosperity >  how to tell if silverware is really made of silver

## Toureg89

there is a Salvation Army store (or some kind of non profit cheap store) within a 2 miles of my house, and they sell stuff cheap. so i was thinking i could walk up there everyday and get a half way decent deal on silver....

each one of the three utensils that appears to be silver were purchased for 0.25$

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## Cleaner44

Sterling silver will be marked as Sterling and/or 925 to designate the 92.5% silver content.  That Rogers stuff is usually just junk.

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## Carson

M.A. Rogers Triple sounds like something triple plated. 



I've got a piece of 1847 Rogers Bros In front of me and it has an "I" and an "S" stamped in it. It is plated, but I think your getting close.

I once had the idea to put together a set with every piece a different pattern. Never got very far.


Some links;

http://www.examiner.com/article/is-i...te-silverplate

http://www.examiner.com/article/roge...ilver-industry


Good hunting!

P.S. I figure stainless is probably safer to eat with.

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## Zippyjuan

You can also look at the tines of the forks.  Often you can see where the plating has worn off.

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## presence

> FREQUENTLY ACCESSED REFERENCE INFORMATION:
> 
> OTHER WEB INFORMATION SOURCES WRITTEN BY ME
> -- My blog: http://www.SilverChatter.com 
> -- Examiner.com articles: http://www.examiner.com/sterling-sil...l/jim-stringer 
> -- My booklet, Selling Your Silver:  http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/georgiasilver
> 
> IDENTIFYING WHAT YOU HAVE
> -- Sterling vs. silver plate: http://www.examiner.com/x-26031-Sterling-Silver-Examiner~y2009m12d9-Is-it-sterli
> ...


http://en.allexperts.com/q/Silver-Fl...iple-plate.htm

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## Bossobass

Wm. A. Rogers, style: Capri

Yes, it's triple plate silver.



One listing says $6.50 for a dinner fork, so buy as many as you can get for 25 cents each.

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## Zippyjuan

That may be for one in nearly mint condition. These don't look very "mint" and may have much more limited resale value. But a quarter is still pretty cheap.

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## oyarde

I was @ a yard sale this summer, went through a hole wooden crate of utensils, pretty old , figured I would find something , came up empty

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## oyarde

I was all set to make some 92.5 rounds .....

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## cbc58

just because it's stamped .925 doesn't mean it is.  you can send stuff to get melted down and it can turn out to be .900, .880 or less.  It's a crap shoot really unless you buy very high quality stuff.  Jewelery marked .925 from Italy is notorious for being lesser quality.  Same goes for gold - easy to pass off lesser quality material and you can loose alot of money if buying for pm content.

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## thoughtomator

The easiest way is to leave it near Hillary Clinton and see if she steals it.

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## UWDude

bring a magnet.  easiest test.

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## enoch150

> I figure stainless is probably safer to eat with.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligodynamic_effect

Silver disinfects itself in a few hours. Stainless steel does not.

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## twomp

> The easiest way is to leave it near Hillary Clinton and see if she steals it.


LOL

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