Selling Silver: What Your Coins, Flatware, and Jewelry Are Worth

Gold gets all the attention, but a lot of folks walking into our stores are surprised to learn there is real money sitting in the silver they already own. A drawer of tarnished flatware, a coffee can of old coins, a jewelry box nobody has opened in years — selling silver is one of the most overlooked ways to turn something you are not using into cash you can use today. Here is an honest look at how it works.

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First, Not All Silver Is the Same

The single biggest factor in what your silver is worth is its purity, and that varies a lot depending on what you have. Sterling silver — the standard for quality flatware and most jewelry — is 92.5% pure, which is why you will see it stamped “925,” “Sterling,” or sometimes “Ster.” Coin silver, an older American standard, runs about 90%. Fine silver bars and rounds are 99.9% pure.

Then there is silver plate, which is a thin layer of silver bonded to a base metal. It often looks identical to sterling to the naked eye, and it is usually marked with things like “EP,” “EPNS,” “silver on copper,” or a brand name with no purity stamp at all. Plated pieces have very little recoverable silver, so they carry little melt value. We will tell you that straight, even when it is not the answer you were hoping for. That is a lot better than finding out later that someone bought your plate as sterling — or worse, that someone bought your sterling as plate.

How the Offer Is Actually Calculated

When you are selling silver for its metal content, the math is refreshingly simple. We weigh the piece, confirm the purity, and calculate how much actual silver is in it. A 100-gram sterling tray, for example, contains about 92.5 grams of pure silver. That number is then measured against the current market price, and the offer follows from there.

Weight and purity are facts. The market price is public. An honest silver offer should be something you can follow start to finish.

We use live market data and the same appraisal tools across all five of our stores, so the offer you get in Lexington is built the same way as the offer in Roanoke. If you want to see the scale and the numbers, ask — we will walk you through it. There is no version of this where the math should be a secret.

When a Piece Is Worth More Than Its Metal

Here is where a lot of people leave money behind. Some silver is worth considerably more than the silver inside it, and melting it would be a mistake.

U.S. coins minted in 1964 and earlier are 90% silver, and certain dates, mint marks, and conditions carry collector premiums well above melt. A complete flatware set from a recognized maker, still in its original chest, is usually worth more as a set than as scrap — breaking it up destroys that premium. Designer and hallmarked jewelry, antique serving pieces, and older pocket watches can all land in this category too.

This is exactly why we look at every piece individually instead of dumping everything on a scale. It takes a few extra minutes, and sometimes those minutes are worth a lot of money to you.

Three Things to Do Before You Come In

1. Do not polish anything

This one surprises people. Aggressive polishing removes a microscopic layer of metal every time, and on antique or collectible pieces it can damage the patina that collectors pay extra for. Tarnish does not lower melt value at all. Bring it as it is.

2. Bring everything, including the odd pieces

Single earrings, broken chains, bent forks, dented candlesticks. Damage does not matter much for metal value, and people routinely leave real money in a drawer because they assumed a broken piece was worthless.

3. Bring a valid photo ID

Virginia law requires it for any precious metals transaction. It protects you as much as it protects us, and it keeps the whole process quick and above board.

You Do Not Have to Sell at All

Worth saying plainly: selling is not your only option. If a piece has sentimental value — your grandmother’s ring, a set that has been in the family for decades — a pawn loan lets you borrow against it and get it back when you pay the loan off. No credit check, no effect on your credit score. Plenty of people choose that route, and we think that is a perfectly good decision.

And if you are on the buying side instead, everything we sell in our retail cases comes with a 30-day warranty — including our jewelry. That has been our standard since we opened in 2014.

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