Silver (or alloy) child's spoon

[Iron Buzz]

Found in a Civil War era home (1850 Large Cent and 1864 IH came from there, owner died in 1890)

Wondering if anyone recognizes the maker's mark.



A couple of other pics showing what appears to be some sort of monogram on the front of the handle:




Also curious about the metal. It was badly bent. I annealed it, assuming it was silver, and that worked pretty well, but the heat turned the surface a weird pinkish gray and the flame coming off of it when I was heating it was either nickel green or copper blue-green. Is that typical of sterling? (the discoloring polished off easily)

 

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[Iron Buzz]

Curiouser and curiouser. The testing kit I use (Quicktest) gives a bold red for silver. Nickel generally gives a blue colouration, moving to a muddy blue if copper is also present. Copper and high levels of it give brown or sometimes greenish, depending on what it is alloyed with.

When you say "known .925", how "known" were those items? One thing to be aware of is that American items marked ".925" or "Sterling" sometimes aren't silver, or at least don't meet that standard (especially so for things like watch casings), although you would be unlucky to have randomly selected two such inferior items for testing.

That is why I used two samples. One was a ring marked .925 and the other was a bracelet by a well-known Navajo silversmith.

Tried putting a drop directly on the spoon.

1) Still wet


2) Blew on acid until evaporated, but still wet


3) Wiped dry


The kit I used is branded "Star Struck" but the bottles say JSP. The silver test is nitric and hydrochloric (muriatic) acid. I'd imagine just one or two companies make all these testing kits that are rebranded

 

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[GoDeep]

If that were plated, the deep gouges, scratches, nicks and they way it's been folded and straightened and abraded through use and polishing, would have revealed the base metal in areas, as plating is typically about 1 micron thick (.000040). Also, consistent with the abuse it's undergone, you'd see the base metal oxidizing through all the openings in the plating and you'd see the plating flaking off in areas. It's also hard to tell from pictures, but I see tarnishing consistent with sterling silver in the cracks/folds that weren't abraded or polished.

 

[XtreasureX]

Buzz. This is intriguing. When you put the acid on the spoon did you notice it bubbling like it was boiling? Did you notice any smell? Silver of higher quality would react less than other metals. Could you show a side by side of the acid reaction with a pre 64 silver coin?

 

[Iron Buzz]

Buzz. This is intriguing. When you put the acid on the spoon did you notice it bubbling like it was boiling? Did you notice any smell? Silver of higher quality would react less than other metals. Could you show a side by side of the acid reaction with a pre 64 silver coin?

I didn't take any pictures of it, but I did do that comparison this morning and the coin produced the same light bluish hue. Do you think maybe my acid is bad? (that line probably just put me at the top of the DEA's list)

 

[XtreasureX]

Buzz. I don't know, but we need some kind of benchmark to work from. This piece has been a tricky one. Hopefully we get this figured out.