Yes, we buy silverplate
Silver Plate Canada buys silver-plated flatware, holloware and knives from Ontario sellers at published pound rates. Mail your items, arrange local pickup, or book a drop-off in Mississauga. EP, EPNS and hotel plate are welcome.
What we pay for silverplate
$10.50 per pound for silver plated flatware. $7.50 per pound for silver plated holloware (teapots, trays, candlesticks; quadruple plate and Britannia metal holloware counts as holloware). $3.50 per pound for silver plated knives (non-magnetic handle). Flat and published. Knives have their own rate because most of a knife's weight is its blade and filled handle, not silverplate. Weighted or filled non-knife pieces (cement-filled candlesticks and the like) are paid on recoverable material, and the deduction shows on your itemized receipt. Prices are subject to market changes.
Your payment depends on the accepted weight in each category, any recoverable-material deductions, and applicable transport charges. Check the prices before deciding what to send.
Two honest facts up front:
- Silverplate contains very little silver. The plating layer is thin, so plate is worth a small flat amount per pound as recyclable material, not a per-gram silver price. Anyone offering to buy your plate "as silver" is confused or worse.
- It is still worth something, and you can sell it by mail. Instead of hauling the chest to a donation bin, box it up. It gets recycled properly, you get paid the published rate, and any solid sterling hiding in the box gets caught on camera and paid at the published sterling rate instead. That happens more often than you would think.
Three ways to sell silverplate in Ontario
- By mail: arrange a discounted shipping label or use your own carrier. The label cost is deducted from your payment.
- Local pickup: for 50 lb or more within about a two-hour drive of Mississauga. Enter your address to see the pickup fee before requesting a collection, and add photos of what you have.
- In person: book a drop-off at 2687 Slough St, Mississauga, ON L4T 1G2.
Have a dealer's stock, an estate clear-out or a large collection of hotel plate? Our bulk silverplate selling page explains how to describe and prepare a trade lot. If you are still identifying individual pieces, send a photo of the item and its marks before shipping.
How to recognize silverplate marks
Every one of these is drawn out at a readable size, with the traps that catch people, on our what is my silver worth page.
Silverplate is a thin layer of pure silver electroplated over a base metal, usually nickel silver (which contains no silver at all) or Britannia metal. The marks give it away:
- EP: electroplate.
- EPNS: electroplated nickel silver, the most common mark of all.
- EPBM: electroplated Britannia metal.
- EPC or Silver on Copper: plate over copper, common on trays and tea sets.
- A1, AA, Triple Plate, Quadruple Plate: plating-thickness grades, all plate.
- "Silverplate", "Plated", "Nickel Silver", "German Silver": as stated. Nickel silver and German silver contain zero silver.
- 1847 Rogers Bros.: the famous one. The 1847 is a founding date, not a year of manufacture, and everything under this name is plate.
- Wm Rogers, Rogers & Bro., Wm A Rogers: the wider Rogers family of marks, plate.
- Community, Community Plate, Oneida Community: plate lines from Oneida.
- Holmes & Edwards, Deep Silver, Inlaid: International Silver plate lines.
- Regency Plate: the Canadian classic; plate, despite the trusted jewellery-house name on it.
- Sheffield Plate, Made in Sheffield with EP: English plate.
- Hotel plate: heavy restaurant and railway pieces, often marked with the hotel or railway name. Plate, but heavy and worth sending.
No mark at all? Older plate sometimes lost its mark to polishing. A magnet test helps a little (silver is not magnetic, but neither are several base metals). When in doubt, email photos to contact@silverplatecanada.ca before you ship and we will tell you honestly what you have.
One important exception
If a piece says STERLING, 925, or carries a lion passant hallmark, stop: that is solid silver, worth many times more than plate. It belongs on the sterling flatware page and is paid at the published sterling rate, which follows the metal market. Mixed boxes are welcome; every parcel is sorted piece by piece on camera and each category is paid at its own correct rate on your receipt. That sorting is exactly why the "worthless" silverplate box so often pays for itself.
Want the deeper explanation of values? Read the guide: is silver plate worth anything?