Over the past few years, my collection of silver flatware has become
a problem to store. As my only reason for buying this flatware was
for it’s silver value, I am looking for a way to convert the
flatware into silver ingots. My problem is I have no idea what
equipment or other materials I may need to do this. Any and all
help would be much appreciated.
Hi there,
Before you melt down your flatware, you might want to check out the
price your pattern is getting on Ebay. Some unusual sterling serving
pieces fetch amazing prices, too.
Just a thought,
Tracy
Tracy’s Treasures
William; Just some food for thought. Very recently, a friend of mine
bought ten non-matching, various named pieces of sterling flatware
at a garage sale for $10.00. He offered them to me thinking that I
might use them also for the silver content. They were very light
weight, not the heavy type that you normally see. I declined 
A
few days later while visiting another friend of his, a banker, and
telling him about the silverware, the friendly banker immediately
offered him $425.00 for the pieces, which my friend immediately
took. After the sale, his banker friend told him about the very
lucrative market for used sterling ware. He sells them to a company
like one sees ads of in the back of magazines, selling old missing
pieces of sterling flatware. It might be worth looking into, as they
may be worth more than the silver content.
Best wishes,
John Barton
To do this effectively, you’d need a melting furnace and an ingot
mold. These can be bought or built. But if all you want is the
silver value, and you’re not interested in casting, I don’t see this
as something you’d really want to invest in. The flatware, since it’s
stamped “sterling”, will be accepted as such by a refiner, who will
give you fine silver bullion ingots with stamps on them in exchange,
less their markup and the sterling/fine conversion factor. These
will be a lot easier to turn into cash than your home-made ingots,
which a refiner would need to assay first, before paying anything for
them. Save some of the flatware to eat with. I think it’s better than
stainless steel for this - it’s certainly less likely to chip a
tooth…
Andrew Werby
www.unitedartworks.com