I know it’s probably not Silver or Old but I bought this along with a few others and wonder what it possibly could be made of !!, passes the magnet test and appears to be either silver or Plated !!! . Thought I’d post for posterity
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We need to have a chat about the “magnet test.” Just about the only metal that a magnet will stick to is iron. So if a magnet won’t stick, it might be silver, gold, pewter, tin, copper, zinc, nickel silver, or just about anything else. Even most stainless steel isn’t magnetic.
Pure nickel is magnetic, but once it’s alloyed with anything else, the crystalline structure changes, and it’s not magnetic. Pure nickel objects are rare.
Pure cobalt is also magnetic, but is also very tough to work. I don’t think anyone has ever made a spoon out of it. ![]()
This is a “test” that needs to be banished - it doesn’t provide any useful information.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/265221869021
https://www.etsy.com/pl/listing/1433035452/yeczka-rolex-zabytkowa-yka-pamitkowa?ls=s&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=cb+69+rolex+spoon&ref=sr_gallery-1-2&sr_prefetch=1&pf_from=market&content_source=0f46f7f3-fdc3-4132-9afb-cbfa5602c0a0%253ALTba3268c579159c12efd9714ae9f97f0b2d909c81&organic_search_click=1&logging_key=0f46f7f3-fdc3-4132-9afb-cbfa5602c0a0%3ALTba3268c579159c12efd9714ae9f97f0b2d909c81
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/397705308406
A cleaner link:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1433035452/a-rolex-spoon-vintage-rolex-lugano
I like the fact that the lister states that the material is “metal.” Really going out on a limb, there! ![]()
Any chat about magnets might start with a quick read of the Wikipedia article on magnets.
What is magnetic and what isn’t.
Magnets for instance don’t work in Cobalt, Ontario. Because cobalt is magnetic.
Magnetic North and South does not get you to either terrestrial pole and if you try to use magnets to guide you anywhere near either pole you have good chance of ending up somewhere in Russia or the South Pacific.
Two things I am not allowed to do which most can is get an MRI in hospital or obey a TSA instruction to go through one of their devices designed to tell them if, in addition to riding on a plane, I might have more nefarious plans. My pacemaker reacts poorly to either device.
Silver is not magnetic. One the other hand silver-plated ferrous products are.
Gold isn’t but a “solid” gold Rolex watch – since Rolex is the trigger topic – is because the stuff that makes it work is, or bits of it are, if it’s quartz.
So yes, the magnet test is generally unreliable. If you want a reliable reaction to your silver, white metal or silver-plated object, put it down on any handy local pawnbroker’s counter and watch his reaction. Far more reliable test for precious metal.
So what does “CB 69” mean on the back of this plated spoon mean? I suspect it refers to metal used in manufacture but cannot figure what.
CRWW
OMG
, What have I started
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I bought another 4 collectable “ unmagnetic “ ( if there’s such a word ) spoons with this one
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A chat about the magnet test, how unreliable it is and what to do to better test your product is what is started.
What might have been started is why a Swiss company that unabashedly sells $200,000 plus watches, largely based on the material it uses for the case and their name, thinks creating a $30 plated teaspoon will assist in that endeavour.
I won my first Rolex watch, a stainless steel job with a leather strap, off an overly optimistic poker player in a game in what is now called Southeast Yemen and was then Aden guarding the Persian Gulf. I still have it and like it better than the fancy bejewelled gold jobs clients sometimes dropped in our laps as a measure of their thanks for tax saving.
My favourite I actually bought for someone else; the GMT Master with the pepsi dial ring. The guy I bought it for and gave it to, needed cash rather than a watch and offered to sell back to me. I agreed, gave him the $2,800 I had paid for it in Hong Kong back then and chucked it in a drawer.
Today “Pepsi watches” from Rolex are rather sought after and someone doing a sock clear out came across it and asked me if I wanted it. I didn’t but took it down to a local friend of mine who fixes old watches for a lube and tidy up after fifty years in the sock drawer.
He got rather excited and insisted on rebuilding the entire watch to make it work and told me to insure it for rather more than the $2,800 I had invested.
So again why a watch company with this sort of collector value thinks teaspoons are a good sales tool who knows.
CRWW
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It gets even better. It turns out that this could open up a whole new corner of collecting! Rolex/Bucherer gave out these spoons as promotions, but it wasn’t just Interlaken. The list of cities includes:
Basel
Bern
Burgenstock
Davos
Geneva
Interlaken
Lausanne
Locarno
Lucerne
Lugano
New York
St. Gallen
St. Moritz
Zermatt
Zurich
And there are variations - lion in the bowl, rose in the handle, Swiss cross, broad handle, narrow handle, and so on. None of this pricey sterling crap! A nice, affordable hobby.
An entirely new rabbit hole to explore.
"So what does “CB 69” mean on the back of this plated spoon mean? I suspect it refers to metal used in manufacture but cannot figure what.
CRWW"
Your very informative post incidentally answered this question:
"I would note the markings on the backs of the spoons
B 100 12, this meant 100 grams of silver was used to plate 12 spoons, or 8.33 grams of silver per spoon
CB69, if you look close with a loop you can see it is actually 6.9 for 6.9 grams of silver(on stainless steel).
CRWW

