Verifying the precious metal content of silver flatware is crucial to determining its value. It can be fairly difficult to tell if silver flatware is real silver for several reasons.
Many manufacturers market silverplated flatware. Silverplate is coated with a thin layer of silver to create the appearance of sterling silver and is popular as an inexpensive substitute. Still other flatware is made from stainless steel fashioned to look like silver.
One more point: real silver flatware is normally sterling, not pure silver. Pure silver is soft and won't stand up under heavy use. Sterling is an alloy of 92.5 percent silver plus another metal (usually copper) that is hard and durable. When people refer to "real" silver flatware, they mean sterling silver.
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