Well, the provided search results were about as useful as a chocolate teapot, offering a grand tour of website navigation instead of any actual facts. So, let's set them aside and dig into the real dirt.
Asking how much silver is in "old silverware" is like asking how much horsepower is in an "old car." It depends entirely on what you've got under the hood! Your grandma's fancy forks could be the real deal, or they could just be playing dress-up. The answer boils down to one crucial distinction: sterling versus silver-plated.
If your silverware is stamped with "Sterling" or "925," congratulations, you've hit the jackpot. This means it's sterling silver, which is an alloy containing 92.5% pure silver by weight. The other 7.5% is typically copper, added to give the soft metal some much-needed backbone so your spoon doesn't bend while you're scooping ice cream. So, for a 100-gram sterling silver fork, you're holding 92.5 grams of actual silver.
On the other hand, if you find markings like "EPNS," "A1," or "Silver-Plate," you have what's essentially a metal costume party. The item is made of a base metal like copper, brass, or nickel, with a microscopically thin layer of silver applied to the surface. The actual silver content is minuscule, making its melt value next to nothing. It's all of the shine with none of the substance, the zirconia of the tableware world. So, grab a magnifying glass and play detective—the tiny stamps on the back will tell you if you're holding a treasure or just a very shiny memory.
