Thrift store find.

[flyfisherman]

Hi guys, I got lucky couple of weeks ago in my local thrift store. I went in there with my son to check some stuff, could not find anything good to buy and was ready to go when I notice bunch of silver plated trays .Almost always they are just junk but I got the feeling that I need to check them anyway. I glad I did, because right away I spotted round platter that looked different from usual silver plated items. On the front I red that it was made in Mexico City by some Mexican silversmith for some dude from Boston. On the other side of the platter I saw white sticky tape with the sign: ' Pan and nymphs'. Platter had the small figures of two naked nymphs laying and the pan(satyr) standing by them. I took the tape off and sure enough there was hallmark underneath , .925 ,name of the artist and STERLING. I could not believe my eyes. The price was only $10.I bought it and brought it home to test and weight. It was real sterling silver and weighted 629g. :shock:

 

[vyper]

WOW $400ish worth of silver for 10 bucks. Not a bad deal at all.

 

[resabed01]

Nice find! I suspect it will be worth more that it's silver content, you should check it out.
I know the feeling when you get one of these deals. I recently had one myself pretty close to your score.
A few weeks back the wife and I went to a town wide garage sale. You know where you park and walk down the street stopping at each house. We stopped at one place and the wife spotted what looked like a mens brass ring in a box of $0.25 items. The reason we thought it was brass was because it looked tarnished and had a green residue on the inside that looked like corrosion. So there we were, the two of us trying to debate if it was gold or brass. Me with my bad eyes and I didn't bring my glasses. We couldn't see any hallmarks through the green whatever it was. It looked like something was stamped inside but we couldn't read it or even tell if it was just a casting flaw. It didn't shine like gold but we couldn't see somebody making a ring like that out of brass. It was a chunky mens ring that had a sculptured face of a nice design. It just didn't make sense. So I said for 25 cents, buy it and if it turns out to be nothing...oh well, no loss.
We went to pay for it and the guys wife saw we were buying it. Her jaw dropped and she asked him "Are you selling that ring?' He said "Yup.... get rid of it".

When I got home I pulled out the loupe and scraped away at the green schmeg to see it finally reveal itself. It was stamped 18K - 750. It weighed in at 12.5g.

 

[ilikesilver]

years ago, probably 35 years anyways when i was big into coin collecting, a very good friend of mine and his father went to a flea market in virginia, he told me it took up many city blocks. Anyways, his father being into scrap metals and stuff, picked up a what looked like a tarnished brass elephant. When he cleaned it, he noticed hallmarks on it at 18K, but it weighed over 8 pounds!!, to this day, he still has that elephant. It has strange India markings on it, he believes it was some sort of religous idol. tim

 

[jmdlcar]

Hi all,

I have a question dose it stamp hallmarks or what do I need to look for to know?

Jack