Different types of Silver plated/pics also

[ilikesilver]

I've been doing a lot of research on silver and i thought this would be a good topic, i know that there has been older topics of the same thing, but i thought about starting a new one for all the newbies and including myself.
So i started my day heading down to Goodwill to get a cheap frying pan so this weekend i can start my Patnor process on eproms and flat packs. $1.99 later nice fry pan, heavy handle/riveted. I looked around some more and found a nice set of silver plated coaster set. .99 cents, i thought why not. so i grabbed it. When i got home i broke one of the coasters in half and tested a chunk of it, tested at .800 silver. no copper or brass showing. is this accurate? i wonder, so i did some more testing.

 

[ilikesilver]

so after i left goodwill, i ran down the street and decided to do some dumpster diving, next to a industrial companys dumpster i found a big old phase 3 relay of some sort. this is what i found. big contacts almost new looking.

 

[ilikesilver]

so after the dumpster diving, i headed home for some lunch and decided i would stop off at the local salvation army. walked around a bit found a little bowl, hardly any markings, then found a picture frame. here are the pictures. the picture frame tested at .500 real cheesy made by towle. big name in silversmiths.

 

[ilikesilver]

so after leaving salvation army, i got home ate some lunch and decided that i had not tested a candle holder that i had picked up for 1.99 at the salvation army about a month ago. so i tore it apart and found that the legs are the part that is plated and you have to cut them open to get what is none as cement out of the hollow of the legs, sometimes they are copper, this one happens to be some sort of cement type filling, much like what is in a knife handle. I tested the middle section of the three candle holders, its a big round thing that held a smaller candle, that tested at .800 here is the pic

 

[ilikesilver]

so i had one other item that i had found at a garage sale last year and never really looked at it good. It was a clock that said *international silver company* on it. (china) i did some research and found that this company was originally a american company formed by several companys along the eastern seaboard back in the 1800s. Then they sold out to a china company. I new this was made in china because it had the back was plastic. I tore it apart and took the so called silver section off and then tore a chunk of it out. the inside looked more like silver, the outside looked kind of like just a cheap white metal so i tested it. the picture shows how bad it is. you can actually see the copper bleed thru. definately junk. i guess for when you are getting stuff free, or .99cents to a 1.99 sometimes you score other times you loose. I think over all i had a great day. Hope you enjoy the post and i will add others as i find stuff. tim