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Is this vintage spoon hallmark "silver plate"
- Thread starter ojm bc
- Start date
Dave~UT
Active member
I don't have the time to research right now, but here's a website you can probably find your answer at.
Hall Marks
Hall Marks
Critterhunter
New member
Scan it with your detector. If it reads high in the coin range then it's not plated, where as plated will read somewhere in the tab range or so usually. It's odd that it would do that, because you'd think that plated the silver is covering the entire inner metal so the detector never sees the junk metal, but every plated silver spoon I can think of I ever dug read well below coin, while ever real silver one of course read as a strong coin signal. I suspect it has to do with the amount of junk metal that somehow seaps into the silver plating as it sits in the ground over time, even if you can't see and pealing or such by eye.
By the way, good as any time to ask...Anybody ever find silver spoons with pieces cut off them? I've found a few over the years, and a friend found one like that a year or so ago I think. Only thing I can figure is that people would pay for things by snipping some silver off the spoon so it could be weighed on a scale to pay for something? Anybody think that sounds about right?
By the way, good as any time to ask...Anybody ever find silver spoons with pieces cut off them? I've found a few over the years, and a friend found one like that a year or so ago I think. Only thing I can figure is that people would pay for things by snipping some silver off the spoon so it could be weighed on a scale to pay for something? Anybody think that sounds about right?
PowerDetecting
Member
sounds exactly right Critter. I know they use to do the same with coins so it only sounds logical for the same with the spoons.
Critterhunter said:
The detector cannot tell the difference between a glob of aluminum and a chunk of silver. I've dug plenty of melted aluminum chunks that read in the 90's VDI. I also dug a german silver spoon that read in the 90 VDI range, no silver content of course. If the spoon has any copper, if plated, then it will still read high in the coin range.
Anyways, This spoon is electroplated silver from Sheffield, England, made between 1900 - 1910 by the firm of William Hutton and Sons. The next two hallmarks are B P which stand for British Plate.
The dates could be inaccurate, thats an opinion made by someone else and I copied what they claimed from the same hallmark.
http://www.ascasonline.org/canteen5bis.jpg
WH & S for William Hutton and Sons,
B P in old English Script [perhaps resembling date and town marks] but meaning British Plate.
MP over A1. The MP is not identified yet. A good guess is Metal Plate. The A1 is a quality mark with the same meaning it has today. In the maker
Critterhunter
New member
I'm telling you, I've dug a ton of eating utensils over the years, both silver a silver plated. Maybe I'm wrong but every single plated silver knife, fork, or spoon I've ever scanned would read lower than a coin. Sure, you may get largely a coin signal out of it but the signal isn't pure and will range down into the tab range here and there as you swept, at least on all the machines I've ever found them with over the years...While non-plated silver spoons and such I've found will stay "COIN" no matter how many times I sweep over them of course.
Of course sometimes globs of melted aluminum and other junk metal can read as high as a coin, but one of the factors about conductivity is the larger the item the more conductive it can be to the detection field. But just the same, usually something like a crushed beer can, while it will give a coin signal, will not only often sound harsh, but it will also sound sick or warble as the signal bounces down the conductivity scale and back up depending on which part of it the detection field is hitting at various angles.
Just about a month ago I was hunting some private land when I came across a very large sounding loud signal that I suspected was going to be a can or something. I almost turned around and walked away but then thought "this is virgin ground, could be a half dollar or something right under the surface". Then I realized...This signal didn't have the harsh tone to it like a can or the audio warble as the conductivity roams here and there down from coin on the scale. Sure enough, large cent laying right under the surface.
As we've found silverware over the years, we've always when in doubt just scanned over it while taking a break. Pure silver always stays "COIN", but the junker plated ones, even if we can't see any pealing of the silver plating by eye, have always either read and stayed lower on the conductivity scale, or they would be mostly coin but would roam or dip down in conductivity to roughly the tab range based on which way you swept over them. It's the shape of the spoon or such and the differing amounts of conductivity based on how much metal is being washed in the detection field at various angles. One angle might be all "COIN", but say sweep just over the handle at a 90 degree angle and it'll roam on you.
Now, why that is? I'm not sure, because if there is no exposed inner junk metal peaking through the silver, I'd figure the detection field would only be seeing the silver and saying "COIN", but I'm thinking either the silver plating is mixed with lessor metals and not as pure as a solid silver item, or in fact the inner junk metal is leaching into the silver plating over decades in the ground due to electrolysis of the two dissimilar metals. You can often see the same thing in silver war nickels. Sometimes they read much higher due to the silver, but other times they'll read as low as any other nickel. Found many that did both.
Reason being I believe is that either the mixed metal (tin and nickel I think?) in a war nickel is either leaching out into the ground and so less of it is in the coin, or the reverse is happening...And the coin is picking up minerals from the ground which draws it further down the conductivity scale. Whenever two dissimilar metals are combined there is a natural electrolysis that takes place when the ground is wet. It might be ever so slight, but over decades it does it's damage. That's why I think silver plated stuff will bounce lower on the scale, so long as it's been in the ground for decades and the soil hasn't been especially nice to it.
Of course sometimes globs of melted aluminum and other junk metal can read as high as a coin, but one of the factors about conductivity is the larger the item the more conductive it can be to the detection field. But just the same, usually something like a crushed beer can, while it will give a coin signal, will not only often sound harsh, but it will also sound sick or warble as the signal bounces down the conductivity scale and back up depending on which part of it the detection field is hitting at various angles.
Just about a month ago I was hunting some private land when I came across a very large sounding loud signal that I suspected was going to be a can or something. I almost turned around and walked away but then thought "this is virgin ground, could be a half dollar or something right under the surface". Then I realized...This signal didn't have the harsh tone to it like a can or the audio warble as the conductivity roams here and there down from coin on the scale. Sure enough, large cent laying right under the surface.
As we've found silverware over the years, we've always when in doubt just scanned over it while taking a break. Pure silver always stays "COIN", but the junker plated ones, even if we can't see any pealing of the silver plating by eye, have always either read and stayed lower on the conductivity scale, or they would be mostly coin but would roam or dip down in conductivity to roughly the tab range based on which way you swept over them. It's the shape of the spoon or such and the differing amounts of conductivity based on how much metal is being washed in the detection field at various angles. One angle might be all "COIN", but say sweep just over the handle at a 90 degree angle and it'll roam on you.
Now, why that is? I'm not sure, because if there is no exposed inner junk metal peaking through the silver, I'd figure the detection field would only be seeing the silver and saying "COIN", but I'm thinking either the silver plating is mixed with lessor metals and not as pure as a solid silver item, or in fact the inner junk metal is leaching into the silver plating over decades in the ground due to electrolysis of the two dissimilar metals. You can often see the same thing in silver war nickels. Sometimes they read much higher due to the silver, but other times they'll read as low as any other nickel. Found many that did both.
Reason being I believe is that either the mixed metal (tin and nickel I think?) in a war nickel is either leaching out into the ground and so less of it is in the coin, or the reverse is happening...And the coin is picking up minerals from the ground which draws it further down the conductivity scale. Whenever two dissimilar metals are combined there is a natural electrolysis that takes place when the ground is wet. It might be ever so slight, but over decades it does it's damage. That's why I think silver plated stuff will bounce lower on the scale, so long as it's been in the ground for decades and the soil hasn't been especially nice to it.
"""Scan it with your detector. If it reads high in the coin range then it's not plated"""......Critterhunter
"""if there is no exposed inner junk metal peaking through the silver, I'd figure the detection field would only be seeing the silver"""......Critterhunter
If metal detectors can only SEE what is on the outside of the object, zinc pennies should read as copper but they don't. And if manipulating a spoon by sweeping over the handle while on its side finally gets a broken or junky signal reveils anything at all about the spoon, then a silver quarter laying on its side giving a pulltab signal is also a pulltab in disguise. I havn't dug hundreds of flatware, or even saying dozens would be a stretch, but asking the detector to determine the metal content is wishful at best. And if someone has a plated spoon, having them do a silver content check by asking the metal detector would provide no helpful information, that is if they had a decent metal detector at all(Lots of other people will be reading all about how you test for silver in a spoon using a metal detector). It would probably read as silver unless they manipulated the handle in just the right way so the VDI's dropped a bit. Even in that scenario, the wishful owner of the spoon would not be convinced he has a junk spoon just because he got the VDI's to change because you can do the same trick with other odd shaped pieces of metal, including silver when you intentionally manipulate it.
I just found a silver nickel the other day and it read just like a nickel. I just got it out and airtested it and it VDI's at +20.
But I guess if a suspected silver spoon reads as a pulltab, +20 range, I would assume it is not silver either. When a spoon of unknown content reads in the +90's and fluctuates, that doesn't determine the metal content.
Many many items read as silver and will always read as silver even when manipulated at different angles but that doesn't mean they are silver. Also, silver can read as less than silver if manipulated, but not ruling out silver. You can get false positives AND positive lies from a metal detector. And all brands and models will vary so the next person to test for silver using that advise will be wasting his/her time.
I'm just trying to be helpful for the next person that researches silver and plated spoons within a metal detector forum, no offense intended if you felt any.
"""if there is no exposed inner junk metal peaking through the silver, I'd figure the detection field would only be seeing the silver"""......Critterhunter
If metal detectors can only SEE what is on the outside of the object, zinc pennies should read as copper but they don't. And if manipulating a spoon by sweeping over the handle while on its side finally gets a broken or junky signal reveils anything at all about the spoon, then a silver quarter laying on its side giving a pulltab signal is also a pulltab in disguise. I havn't dug hundreds of flatware, or even saying dozens would be a stretch, but asking the detector to determine the metal content is wishful at best. And if someone has a plated spoon, having them do a silver content check by asking the metal detector would provide no helpful information, that is if they had a decent metal detector at all(Lots of other people will be reading all about how you test for silver in a spoon using a metal detector). It would probably read as silver unless they manipulated the handle in just the right way so the VDI's dropped a bit. Even in that scenario, the wishful owner of the spoon would not be convinced he has a junk spoon just because he got the VDI's to change because you can do the same trick with other odd shaped pieces of metal, including silver when you intentionally manipulate it.
I just found a silver nickel the other day and it read just like a nickel. I just got it out and airtested it and it VDI's at +20.
But I guess if a suspected silver spoon reads as a pulltab, +20 range, I would assume it is not silver either. When a spoon of unknown content reads in the +90's and fluctuates, that doesn't determine the metal content.
Many many items read as silver and will always read as silver even when manipulated at different angles but that doesn't mean they are silver. Also, silver can read as less than silver if manipulated, but not ruling out silver. You can get false positives AND positive lies from a metal detector. And all brands and models will vary so the next person to test for silver using that advise will be wasting his/her time.
I'm just trying to be helpful for the next person that researches silver and plated spoons within a metal detector forum, no offense intended if you felt any.