I purchased a plated sugar caster. Based on the weight and construction it is likely plated. When I acid tested it. it tests as silver. I’m stumped. Is this an old heavily plated item? Hoping someone might tell me what the hallmarks say. Thanks so much for your time.
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Pseudo-hallmarks, think so…
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Acid testing depends on what you pickup when rubbing on the touchstone. A gentle non-invasive rub will simply deposit a layer of .999 silver without picking up any of the base metal.
So you have to rub it through to the base metal to get a real result, as I think you have just found out.
More reliable testing is de-plating or use of an XRF machine. Since the latter requires too much capital outlay for most private individuals, take it to a silversmith or anybody else who has one and use his.
But the most reliable method of testing which doesn’t cost anything, other than the hundreds of hours you have spent looking at silver? Look at it.
Look for genuine hall marks, look for folding at edges and seams if you think it might be old Sheffield Plate (the sandwich). Look for the surface of slightly too even perfection indicating electro-plate. Do exactly what you have done test with weight and feel.
You will find you are so rarely wrong that you start to think you are infallible. But it’s you against thousand of platers and millions of dollars so accept they still might fool you!
Now, just for fun, try doing it with your eyes blind folded. Silver conducts heat and cold and is slightly more plastic. You can after a bit of practice do it with your eyes shut and still get it right.
Which is why this site with only photo evidence is more difficult to get right than actual items handled " in the flesh" as it were and why buying from distance auctions based only on their photos and description is a mug’s game
With reference to this item, you were sold it as plate and it appears the seller was accurate in his or her description.
It looks as it is it weighted and the weight covered with a plate of some sort and those marks, which are unknown to me, added to the plate.
CRWW
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