Hello guys and girls, I got this teas set with a whole collection of stuff and I would like to know what the symbols mean and which symbols read what. I am certain that the teas set is silver as i have a metal analyzing gun that has giving it a reading of about 96%. The tray is a different story and is giving me 2 different readings from the top and the bottom. i have included pics of the essay results here as well. Any help would be much appreciated.
I believe Cooper Brothers Silver Plate Sheffield England. One is electroplated nickel silver. The other electroplate brass or copper? Your machine must be reading the heavy silver electroplate.
Interesting!! can you tell me what each symbol represents.
The Niton XL2 metal analyser gun is used in a precious metal recycling business. It is used to specifically pick up the Plated gold and silver over the real stuff. If this is indeed Electroplated then it is the first piece that has been falsely read in 1000’s and 1000’s of pieces.
thanks for the reply.
EP is Electroplated
EPNS is Electroplated Nickel Silver
both are a micro thin layer of silver on a base material. And base material is 99.99999% of total weight. and 0.00000000000000000001% is silver.
sorry to tell you.
Ok thanks for that… very interesting.
Does anyone know what the 1st and 3rd symbols are?
The first is C (for Cooper) and the third is S (for Sheffield).
I know nothing about these analyser tools but I suspect that they can only check the surface. As the surface of electroplated silver is effectively pure silver it’s not surprising that you are getting a high reading. As Hose_dk says, though, the layer is vanishingly thin so the total silver content is similarly tiny.
The analysis machine pentrates about 5 microns into the metal via a radiation beam. normally it will go through plate easily so we can detect plated gold etc.
I havent done alot on silver which is why I asked about the hall marks. i have since spoken to a more seasoned person on the machine than myself and he said that sometimes the file does need to be filed to get e true reading but it isnt a common practice.
I dont know mashine either. I test using a fluid. When using this i often get a result silver. Even when marks tell me that its plate.
Reason i only test the surface.
In your case the marks are so thypical plate marjks, therefor no question its plate ____ mashine or no mashine. Asid test or not, the marks are clear enough.
Oh I believe you that it is plated.
I will get a file out tomorrow and see if i can file i bit down and take another reading
A good quality silver plating should be a minimum of 10 microns on a piece of holloware such as this. That may be why it is showing as silver. You could also have tested where the piece is hard soldered with silver solder.