Two numbers
Every piece of solid silver has a scrap silver value: its weight, multiplied by its fineness, multiplied by the price of silver that day, less a refiner’s margin. It is the floor. Nothing sells for less, because a refiner will always pay it.
Some pieces also have an auction value, which is what a buyer pays for the object rather than the metal. For a Paul Storr jug it is twenty times the scrap value. For a plain twentieth-century sugar bowl it is the same number. The job is to find out which kind of piece you have, and the whole decision takes half an hour.
The arithmetic
Silver is priced per troy ounce of pure metal, and a troy ounce is 31.1035 grams. The benchmark is the LBMA Silver Price, set by auction in London each working day and the figure British refiners settle against. On 21 September 2026 it was £49.23 per troy ounce, which is £1.58 per gram of fine silver.
An object is not pure silver, so the fineness comes off first.
| Standard | Fineness | Value per gram of object | Value per 100 g |
|---|---|---|---|
| Britannia | 958 | £1.52 | £152 |
| Sterling | 925 | £1.46 | £146 |
| Continental 900 | 900 | £1.42 | £142 |
| Continental 800, German and Dutch | 800 | £1.27 | £127 |
| Electroplate | Nil | Nil | Nil |
A sterling teapot weighing 500 grams therefore holds about £730 of silver at that price. Silver has moved a long way in twelve months, so take the day’s figure from the silver price per gram or the scrap calculator rather than any number printed in a guide.
What the buyer takes off
Nobody pays the melt figure. Refining costs money and the buyer is carrying the price risk between the counter and the furnace.
| Buyer | What they pay against melt |
|---|---|
| Refiner, trade quantities, by assay | 90 to 96 percent |
| Bullion dealer or scrap merchant, over the counter | 80 to 90 percent |
| Jeweller or pawnbroker | 70 to 85 percent |
| Postal cash-for-silver service | Ask first, in writing, and set a minimum |
The spread widens as the parcel gets smaller. A kilogram of sterling gets a better rate than four spoons, which is a reason to sell the whole lot in one go rather than a drawer at a time.
Step one: weigh it
Use a kitchen scale in grams. Take off anything that is not silver: wooden or ivory handles, glass liners, bone or ivory insulators on a teapot handle, and above all the pitch or plaster that fills “loaded” pieces.
Loaded candlesticks, loaded vases and the bases of some trophies are a thin silver shell filled with resin and weighted with plaster. The silver is 15 to 25 percent of the gross weight. A loaded candlestick that weighs 400 grams contains around 80 grams of silver, and a refiner deducts the fill before quoting.
These rough weights help before anything goes on a scale.
| Object | Approximate silver weight |
|---|---|
| Teaspoon | 15 to 25 g |
| Table fork or spoon | 55 to 80 g |
| Canteen of six place settings, 44 pieces | 1,800 to 2,600 g |
| Cream jug | 100 to 180 g |
| Sugar bowl | 150 to 250 g |
| Teapot | 400 to 700 g |
| Salver, 12 inch | 700 to 1,100 g |
| Loaded candlestick, pair | 150 to 250 g of actual silver |
| Photograph frame, loaded | 30 to 80 g of actual silver |
Weigh knives separately. Table knives have loaded handles and steel blades, and a canteen quoted by gross weight including knives is a canteen quoted wrong. The cutlery guide takes the canteen apart piece by piece and sets out what the pattern adds to the figure.
Step two: read the marks
The hallmarks guide covers this. What you want from the marks is the date and the maker.
For an object that is not silver at all, what is this worth gives the equivalent starting point for books, stamps, coins and medals.
Pre-1830 raises the ceiling. A maker with a page in the register raises it further. A London or Edinburgh mark on an early piece raises it again. Marks that are worn flat, rubbed by generations of polishing, cost money in themselves, because a piece that cannot be attributed sells nearer its metal.
Step three: look at the object
Some forms are collected for themselves and some are not.
| Sells for the object | Sells for the metal |
|---|---|
| Georgian hollowware: teapots, coffee pots, sauce boats, salvers | Plain twentieth-century hollowware without a maker |
| Card cases, vinaigrettes, snuff boxes, vestas | Odd modern spoons and forks |
| Complete canteens by a known maker | Incomplete or mixed canteens |
| Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau pieces | Presentation trophies with engraved dedications |
| Early spoons: apostle, seal-top, trefid | Pieces with monograms removed |
| Scottish provincial and Irish silver | Late Victorian pierced and stamped smallwork |
| Anything by Jensen, Ramsden, Liberty or Mills | Cruet sets and toast racks without a name |
Damage moves a piece down the table. A split, a repaired handle, a removed crest that has left a thin patch, a heavily chased Victorian body on a plain Georgian form: each one pushes an object towards its metal value.
Step four: do the sum
Put the two numbers side by side and the decision makes itself.
| Ratio of likely auction price to scrap value | What to do |
|---|---|
| Below 1.2 | Sell to a refiner or dealer. The auction charges take the difference |
| 1.2 to 2 | Auction if the scrap value is above £300, refiner below it |
| Above 2 | Auction, and ask about a specialist silver sale |
| Unknown, and the piece is pre-1830 or signed | Get an opinion before anything else happens |
Below about £150 in scrap value, the refiner is the better route for most plain pieces: the saleroom charges commission, VAT and a lotting fee, and takes weeks to pay, while the refiner pays on the day. The auctions guide sets out what those charges come to at three price points, and the selling guide covers what each buyer asks for and the three weights a quote can be built on.
What not to do
Do not polish heavily before selling. Silver polish removes metal, and forty years of weekly polishing is why so many Victorian pieces have marks you cannot read.
Do not remove a crest or a monogram. The patch shows, and the piece is worth less afterwards than it was with the engraving.
Do not split a set. A pair of candlesticks is worth more than two candlesticks, and a canteen is worth more than its pieces.
Do not accept a scrap price for anything with a good maker, a pre-1830 date or a collected form without asking a saleroom first. That opinion is free, takes a week, and is the only step in this guide that costs nothing at all.
