Real Silver, German Silver or Silver Plate? How to Tell the Difference

How can you tell whether it is real silver? First look for the marks. Real silver bears a fineness mark, such as 925 or 830, and Swedish silver a row of official marks: maker, town, assay mark and date letter. Silver-plated ware has only a thin layer of silver over another metal, often nickel silver (German silver), and is marked NS, EPNS or with numbers such as 90 and 100, but has no official assay marks. Where the silver has worn away, a yellower or reddish metal shows.

Facts

Four materials that look alike

Real silver is never quite pure; it is alloyed with copper to make it harder. Sterling silver has 925 parts silver in 1,000, and Swedish silver for a long time held 830 parts per thousand. The object is silver all the way through, like the Gustavian candlestick.

Sheffield plate was invented in the 1740s: a copper plate with silver fused to it was rolled out into sheet, and objects such as the tea urn looked like silver but cost a fraction. In 1840 Elkington of Birmingham patented electroplating, in which a thin layer of silver is deposited using an electric current. It was most often applied to nickel silver, an alloy of copper, nickel and zinc that contains no silver at all and is also called German silver or alpaca. Christopher Dresser’s teapot of 1879 is electroplated. The terms are explained in the glossary.

Read the marks

Swedish silver bears a town mark, a maker’s mark, an assay mark with three crowns and a date letter – the diagram further down shows what they look like, and the guide to silver hallmarks how they are read. Danish silver is often marked 925 S or Sterling Denmark, like Georg Jensen’s cutlery, English sterling silver has a lion, and the fineness is often given in parts per thousand: 925, 830 or 800. Workshops such as Georg Jensen also stamped their name and often a design number beside the fineness.

Plated ware has no official assay marks. Instead it is often marked NS for nickel silver, EPNS for electroplated nickel silver or just EP, or with numbers such as 90 and 100, which indicate how much silver has been applied. The name of the factory often appears beside it: the Swedish GAB marked nickel silver GAB and NS, and Gense, Christofle and WMF made plated cutlery and services in large series. Some factories made stamps that resemble official silver marks, so look at what is actually there.

Look where it has worn

Silver-plated ware shows itself where it is used most: on the tips and backs of spoons and forks, on edges, handles and feet. When the silver layer has worn through, a yellowish, brass-like tone from the nickel silver shows, or reddish copper on Sheffield plate. This is sometimes called bleeding.

Sheffield plate often has edges that are folded over or covered with silver wire, so that the copper in the cut does not show. Electroplated ware often has machine-pressed patterns that repeat exactly. Real silver looks the same all the way through; it may be scratched and soft, but beneath the surface there is only more silver.

Simple tests and what they do not show

A magnet shows only whether something is made of iron or magnetic steel: silver is not attracted to a magnet, but neither are copper, brass or nickel silver. Nor does it show anything if the polish turns black, since both silver and silver plate tarnish. Weight and ring are uncertain tests.

Do not carry out your own acid tests or filing, which damage the object. A goldsmith can test the fineness with acid in a hidden spot or measure it by X-ray fluorescence without damaging the surface. Often the marks and the wear are enough to settle the matter.

Pewter, steel and other silver-like metals

Pewter was the silver of the farmer and the burgher: soft, grey and cast in moulds into jugs, plates and dishes. Pewterers were organised in guilds and stamped their wares with town, master and quality, and in Sweden pewter too was given date letters. Pewter is softer and duller than silver, dents easily and does not tarnish black.

Stainless steel became common in cutlery from the 1930s and is often marked 18/8 or 18/10, rostfritt or stainless, with the maker’s name. It is harder and colder in tone than silver and does not tarnish. Aluminium and chromed brass can also resemble silver from a distance but are light and hard respectively and have no silver marks.

Why the difference matters

The material dates a piece. Sheffield plate is almost always from before 1850, since electroplating drove it out. Electroplated nickel silver made cutlery and services cheap for the middle class in the age of industrialisation, and it was made in great quantities throughout the 20th century. From the 1930s stainless steel began to take over cutlery, marked 18/8 or 18/10, and from the 1960s jugs and bowls too, such as Cylinda Line.

A silver-plated object can be as well designed as one of silver, and many of the most modern objects of the 19th century were made in plated metal, such as Dresser’s teapots. If you want to date a silver object, the next step is the marks; see the guide to silver hallmarks and the page on silver. For other materials there is the guide to porcelain marks.

How to recognise it

Exercise

Under a spoon is stamped GAB and NS, and near the tip a yellowish metal shows through. What is the spoon made of?