Old Sterling hand mirror

tamrock

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Jan 16, 2013
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Got this at an indoor flea market for 4 dollars. At first I looked around the edges of the handle for any marks, but there were none. Looked around the edges of the mirrors back and then noticed it's got British sterling hallmarks on the back perimeter area. The filler inside is busted up as sounds like it's got loose pebbles inside, so with that I think I'm gonna bust it up like I do most weighted sterling and sell it for scrap.
 

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Amazing. Think about the fact that these people willingly engage in the resale of antiques yet don’t know what those marks are. They aren’t even curious enough to investigate? Lol “Bah doye hunny, what you dink dem squigglies on back o’mirror are?”
 

Amazing. Think about the fact that these people willingly engage in the resale of antiques yet don’t know what those marks are. They aren’t even curious enough to investigate? Lol “Bah doye hunny, what you dink dem squigglies on back o’mirror are?”
I don't know? Some people just don't seem all that curious of items they resale in these flea markets and antique malls, which makes them great places to seek out treasue. Most of these individual vendors have little interest in getting the most out of their merchandise as they need to price it to sell quickly or they won't be very successful at it. Talking to the owners of this place they told me the vendors who have lots of merchandise priced under the 5 dollar range make the most money each month as their stuff flies of the shelf. Those who price higher generally don't last and give it up after a few months, because they can't sell enough to cover their monthly space rental fee. In the case of this mirror I don't think the vendor even though of taking a closer look at it and they most likely got it at a yard sale for no more than a dollar or so.
 

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Nice buy. They were fancy back then.
 

Great eye! If you break it up let us know how much silver was in it.
 

Great eye! If you break it up let us know how much silver was in it.
I'll do that. Maybe even today?. I noticed also there's a retainer ring that holds the mirror in and it's hallmarked also.
 

I'll do that. Maybe even today?. I noticed also there's a retainer ring that holds the mirror in and it's hallmarked also.
This is what you might expect out of these old silver mirrors. This one yielded just about 3.5 OTZ. of pure melt silver. I'm guessing I'll get maybe $45.00 cash down at the coin shop out of it now. Who knows what I'd a gotten for it as-is on eBay, maybe more or less :dontknow:. Checking the sales history it seems the real art nouveau'ish looking ones are what folks really pay up on, but I won't be dealing with the hassle of selling it online. Maybe the coin shop might have something cool in trade?. One time I traded him some silver I got for 12 bucks for a vintage Glycine rotating bezel airman. It was missing the stem and crown for the bezel function, so I decided to eBay it. Some guy payed $489. for it and I noticed he fixes old airman's and sells them online. It makes me sad I don't have it anymore, but hey it took a nice bite out of an unexpected auto repair I had to deal with.
 

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