Sell sterling silver flatware from anywhere in Canada

Is your set sterling? Check the marks

Turn a fork over and look at the back of the handle. Sterling silver is almost always marked. Look for any of these:

These marks are drawn out as pictures, alongside the plate marks they get confused with, on our what is my silver worth page.

• STERLING or STER: the standard North American mark.
• 925, .925 or 92.5: sterling by fineness.
• Lion passant (a small walking lion): the ENGLISH sterling hallmark, usually alongside a town mark and a date letter. Scottish silver carries a thistle or a rearing lion instead, and Irish silver a crowned harp, so no walking lion does not mean no silver.
• A seated Britannia figure with a lion’s head, or 958: Britannia standard, about 95.8% pure. This is PURER than sterling. Do not confuse it with Britannia metal, a tin alloy carrying no silver at all.
• 800, 830, 835: continental European solid silver at lower fineness. Still solid, still valuable; we quote it at its actual purity.
• COIN, PURE COIN, DOLLAR or 900: older North American coin silver, nominally about 90% pure and in practice sometimes lower, which is why we test it rather than assume it. Also solid, also bought.

If the piece instead says EP, EPNS, EPBM, "silver plate", "plated", A1, or carries plate-line names like 1847 Rogers Bros. or Community Plate, it is silverplate: a thin silver coating over base metal. We buy that too, on a different basis: see the silverplate page. Still unsure? The guide on telling sterling from silverplate walks through it, and if you are still unsure after that, send it: testing is free.

What counts as flatware and holloware

Forks, knives, spoons, serving pieces, ladles, cake servers. Holloware means the hollow serving pieces: tea and coffee pots, creamers, sugar bowls, trays, bowls, candlesticks, napkin rings. All of it is bought at the same published rate for its actual silver weight.

Three honest warnings before you weigh

• Knife handles are not solid. Sterling knives have hollow handles filled with resin, with a stainless blade. Only the sterling shell counts. Your itemized receipt shows exactly how each knife was valued.
• Weighted pieces contain filler. Candlesticks and compotes marked "weighted" or "reinforced" have a cement core under a thin sterling skin. We pay on the recoverable silver only, and the deduction shows on your receipt, never sprung on you.
• Do not polish before sending. Polishing removes silver, full stop.