What you hold · Sterling & Flatware
Sterling — Usually Worth More Than You Think, and Sometimes Not
Sterling flatware and hollowware are real silver, and the two complications are weighted handles and the fact that some sets are worth more than melt.
Tell us the form as well as the quantity. With silver, form changes the number more than people expect.
65%
Advance against market value
$15k
Minimum loan — a lot of silver at current prices
Sealed
Monster boxes verify by seal, which saves you money
Same
The same boxes and bars come back
Not everything on the scale is silver
Knife handles are usually filled with cement or pitch, and candlesticks and many hollowware pieces are weighted. Weighing a set gross overstates the silver content substantially. And a complete set by a recognized maker in good condition can be worth considerably more sold as a set than melted.
What we do
- Test rather than read marks, because marks are worn and sometimes wrong.
- Weigh with weighted and filled components excluded.
- Identify maker and pattern where a set may exceed melt.
- Distinguish sterling from silver plate, which has no melt value.
- Flag anything that should be sold as a set instead.
How we handle it
- 01Describe the set roughly — you do not need to identify it.
- 02Ship insured, or bring it in if you are near Fort Lauderdale.
- 03Test, sort and weigh with non-silver excluded.
- 04Flag anything worth more as a set than as metal.
- 05Advance on net sterling content.
Do not polish it. Polishing removes silver, and on a set that has been polished for decades the cumulative loss is measurable. Tarnish costs you nothing at all in this transaction.
Said plainly
Where we stop
A complete set by a recognized maker in good condition frequently sells for well above melt. We will tell you if that describes yours, and pledging it against metal content would be the wrong use of it.
FAQ
Common questions
- Are knife handles silver?
- The handles are, the filling is not. They are weighed with the filling excluded.
- Is silver plate worth anything?
- Essentially nothing as melt. The plating is microscopic. We will tell you if that is what you have.
- Should I polish it first?
- No. Polishing removes silver. Tarnish costs you nothing here.
- Might my set be worth more than melt?
- A complete set by a recognized maker often is. We will flag it.
Silver realities
Volatility & Margin Calls
Silver moves more than gold. The same 65% advance therefore has less room before the loan-to-value goes out of range.
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Bulk & Freight
The same value in silver occupies roughly seventy times the volume of gold. Everything downstream of that — freight, handling, storage — follows from it.
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The Gold-Silver Ratio
A question we get often from people holding both, and the honest answer has nothing to do with predicting the ratio.
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Storage Economics
Storage is priced on space and handling rather than on worth, which is why silver storage costs more per dollar stored than gold does.
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Liquidity at the End
Every secured facility ends one of two ways: you repay, or the collateral is sold. It is worth understanding in advance how quickly your particular silver would move.
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More what you hold
Sealed Monster Boxes
A sealed mint box of 500 coins is the easiest silver there is to handle. The seal is intact, the count is known, and verification takes minutes rather than hours.
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Silver Bars
Bars are the most storage-efficient form of silver, and the larger the bar the better the economics — right up until you want to sell part of it.
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Rounds & Generic Silver
Privately minted rounds are pure metal exposure with no sovereign premium, which makes them straightforward collateral and slightly less liquid at sale.
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Next step
Run it both ways before you decide.
No credit check and no obligation. Tell us what you hold and what the money is for, and if selling is the better answer for your situation you will be told that first.
Business purpose only. Not available in Nevada, Vermont, North Dakota and South Dakota.