What silver is actually worth selling?
Most people deciding to sell silver are not holding a bullion stack. They are holding a drawer, a box from an estate, or a cabinet of things nobody uses, and the useful question is which of it carries real money. Ranked by what actually produces value at our counters, day after day:
- Sterling flatware and tea sets. The heavyweight category, literally. A full sterling service or a solid tea set holds more metal than almost anything else a household owns, and sets sit forgotten in cabinets for decades. Weight is the whole story here, and the weight math is below.
- Pre-1965 US silver coins. Every US dime, quarter and half dollar struck before 1965 is 90 percent silver, and Morgan and Peace dollars hold 0.7734 troy ounces each. A jar of old change can quietly outvalue a jewelry box, and the right date or mint mark carries a collector premium above the metal.
- Bars, rounds and bullion coins. The simplest sale of all: purity and weight are stamped on the piece, so an American Silver Eagle, a Maple Leaf or a marked bar prices straight against the live market with nothing to debate.
- Sterling jewelry. Marked 925, and priced by weight for ordinary pieces. Heavy chains, cuffs and mixed scrap lots add up faster than people expect, and signed designer pieces can be worth more intact than melted, which we check before quoting.
- Mixed estate boxes. Usually a blend of everything above plus some plate, which is exactly why the whole box should come in unsorted. The sorting is the service, and it is free.
- Silver plate. The honest bottom of the list. Electroplated pieces carry a trace of silver over base metal, so there is nothing meaningful to buy. We identify plate for free and hand it back, and the occasional antique exception is a collector question we will flag when we see it.
If your pile is mostly categories one through five, the trip is worth making. If you genuinely only have modern plate, we would rather tell you here than after you drive over. And if you are not sure which you have, that is normal: the marks section below sorts most of it from your kitchen table.
What do sellers bring, and how does the counter treat it?
Here is the honest version of what happens to each kind of silver once it is on the counter. No category is turned away, but each one is handled differently, and knowing the difference before you visit means no surprises in the offer.
| What you bring | What it usually is | How the counter treats it |
|---|---|---|
| A flatware set in a wooden chest | Sterling, plate, or a mix of both | Marks read piece by piece, sterling separated from plate, knife blades and weighted parts set aside, real sterling weighed and quoted |
| A tea set, tray or candlesticks | Sterling holloware, often with weighted bases | Maker marks checked for antique value first, filler weight excluded, sterling priced on metal or on the piece, whichever is higher |
| A jar or roll of old coins | Pre-1965 90 percent silver plus modern clad | Sorted by date and mint mark, collector premiums checked before melt, silver coins priced on content, clad handed back |
| Bars, rounds or Silver Eagles | .999 fine bullion | Verified by XRF, weighed, priced directly against the live market that day |
| A bag of jewelry marked 925 | Sterling jewelry and some costume pieces | Tested piece by piece, signed and designer items valued as jewelry first, the rest weighed as sterling scrap |
| Unmarked or foreign pieces | Anything from coin silver to plate | XRF tested in seconds, bought at true purity if silver, identified and returned if not |
| A boxed EPNS serving set | Electroplate | Identified for free and handed back, with a straight answer instead of a token offer |
The thread running through all of it: nothing is weighed in bulk, and nothing valuable is allowed to hide in a scrap pile. A signed piece, a key date coin or a complete pattern set is pulled out and priced on its own merits before any melt number is spoken.
Not sure what your drawer is worth? Bring it in unsorted and watch it valued piece by piece, free.
📞 Call (732) 483-4145How much is a drawer of sterling flatware worth?
Flatware is where the money usually is, and it is also where sellers most often misjudge, in both directions. The two things to know before you weigh anything:
First, only the sterling counts. Standard sterling knives are a stainless steel blade inside a thin sterling shell filled with cement, so a knife that feels substantial holds only a small amount of silver. Weighted candlesticks and trophy bases are the same story: marked sterling, mostly filler. This is why a set that weighs 1,500 grams on a kitchen scale might hold 900 grams of actual silver, and why we separate those parts in front of you before quoting.
Second, the arithmetic is public. Sterling is 92.5 percent silver, spot is quoted per troy ounce of pure silver, and one troy ounce is 31.1035 grams. Using a placeholder market price of $S per troy ounce, substitute the live number when you calculate:
Worked example. A sterling service for 8, once the knives and serving pieces with weighted handles are set aside, weighs 800 grams.
- Pure silver content: 800 grams × 0.925 = 740 grams of pure silver.
- Convert to troy ounces: 740 ÷ 31.1035 = 23.79 troy ounces.
- Multiply by the market price: 23.79 × $S is the set's melt value at that rate.
For scale, a typical sterling service for 8 holds roughly 600 to 1,200 grams of real silver, and heavy patterns push past that. A service for 12 with its serving pieces can more than double it. The silver calculator runs this arithmetic for any weight and purity, and treat its answer as the floor: a complete service in a pattern collectors still want can be worth more assembled than melted, which is checked at the counter before any offer is made.
Coins have their own fixed contents rather than a weighing, so if your drawer includes old change, look each coin up on the coin value pages first: a pre-1965 quarter holds 0.1808 troy ounces of pure silver, a half dollar 0.3617, and a Morgan or Peace dollar 0.7734, every one priced at the live rate on the day you sell.
How do I read the marks on my silver?
Almost every question about a drawer of silver is answered by turning the pieces over. Look on the back of flatware handles, inside ring bands, on clasp tags and on the underside of holloware. Here is what the marks mean for your money:
| Mark on the piece | What it means | Silver purity | What that means for selling |
|---|---|---|---|
| .999, 999 | Fine silver | 99.9% silver | Bullion grade, prices directly against the spot quote |
| 958, Britannia figure | Britannia standard | 95.8% silver | High-grade British silver, pays slightly above sterling per gram |
| 925, Sterling, STER, lion passant | Sterling silver | 92.5% silver | The workhorse: most flatware, holloware and quality jewelry, solid metal value by weight |
| 900, Coin, C | Coin silver | 90% silver | Pre-1965 US coinage and early American flatware, close behind sterling per gram |
| 800 | European silver | 80% silver | Genuine silver at a lower fraction, common on continental flatware, still well worth selling |
| EPNS, Silver Plate, A1, IS, or no mark | Electroplate, usually | Trace | Almost no metal value; identified free and handed back, but unmarked pieces can surprise, so bring them |
Three caveats before you sort your pile into keep and toss. Marks wear off: a century of handling can erase a stamp from a genuine sterling spoon. Marks can lie: fake stamps exist, which is why anything uncertain goes under the XRF analyzer at the counter. And no mark does not mean no silver: old coin silver and foreign pieces are regularly unmarked. The free test settles all three in seconds, so let the doubtful pieces ride along with the sure ones.
A magnet is a rough home check, since silver is not magnetic, but plenty of plated pieces pass it too. Treat the magnet as a way to rule pieces out, never a way to rule them in.
Does tarnish or polishing change the price?
No, and this one belief costs sellers more wasted effort than any other. Tarnish is a thin layer of silver sulfide that forms on the surface when silver meets everyday air. The metal underneath is completely unchanged, and an offer built on purity and weight does not move because a tray is black instead of bright. A tarnished sterling tray and a gleaming one of the same weight are worth exactly the same at the scale.
So leave every piece exactly as you found it. Bringing silver in untouched costs you nothing, and it protects the one thing that can be lost at home: original surfaces. On signed holloware, antique pieces and collectible coins, the untouched surface is part of what a collector pays for, and it cannot be put back once it is gone. The safest routine for a seller is also the laziest one, which is a rare piece of good news: open the cabinet, box it up as it is, and let the counter do the rest.
The same logic applies to repairs and disassembly. Do not break up a matched set to make it easier to carry, do not remove stones from jewelry, and do not separate a coin from its holder or paperwork. Whole and original is the most valuable state your silver can arrive in.
Is now a good time to sell silver?
The honest answer is that nobody can call the top of a metals market, and anyone who promises to is selling something. What a seller can control is simpler and worth more in practice: sell against the live rate, and know your own numbers before you walk in.
Silver trades continuously on global markets, and the spot price moves through every trading day. The live ticker on this page shows the current market, quoted per troy ounce of pure silver. Our offers are built from that live rate at the moment you sell, not from a printed buy sheet that was set last week, which means when the market moves, the offer moves with it, in both directions.
Practically, that gives you a simple routine. Check the ticker, run your weights through the formula above or the silver calculator, and you will walk in already knowing the honest range for your metal. A seller who knows their number is impossible to lowball, which is precisely why we hand you the arithmetic instead of hiding it.
One timing note that has nothing to do with the market: estates and inheritances are better evaluated sooner than later, while sets are still complete and paperwork still findable. A complete service with its serving pieces, or a coin collection with its albums intact, is worth more than the same items scattered over the years.
Know your number before you walk in. Then bring it to any of our eight counters and watch us do the same math out loud.
📞 Call (732) 483-4145What happens step by step when I sell?
Selling silver at a walk-in counter should be the least mysterious transaction you make all year. Here is the whole visit, in order:
- Walk in with the silver and a photo ID. No appointment at any of the eight stores: Aberdeen, Brick, East Brunswick, Farmingdale, Manalapan, Middlesex, Millstone and New Brunswick. Every store is open Monday through Friday, 10 AM to 6 PM; Saturday hours vary by store and two stores are closed Saturday, so check your store's page before a Saturday trip; all eight are closed Sunday.
- Everything is sorted in front of you. Sterling from plate, coins by date and mint mark, bullion to one side, signed pieces set apart for their own look.
- Uncertain pieces are XRF tested while you watch. The analyzer reads exact metal content in seconds without damaging anything, and you see every reading.
- Non-silver weight comes out. Knife blades, weighted bases and stones are excluded so the quote covers real metal only.
- The real silver is weighed on a certified scale. Grams and troy ounces, displayed where you can read them.
- Value above melt is checked before any offer. Patterns, maker marks, key dates and condition, so nothing collectible is paid as scrap.
- You hear the offer and the arithmetic behind it. Purity times weight times the live rate, spoken out loud, itemized so you can accept some pieces and keep others.
- You decide, with zero pressure. Accept and take same day cash, or decline and take every piece home exactly as it arrived. The evaluation is free either way.
The whole process runs about 15 to 30 minutes for a typical lot. Large estates take longer because every piece earns its own check, and for a big or difficult-to-move estate you can call ahead on (732) 483-4145 and we will talk through the practical options first.
What should I bring with me?
- A valid government-issued photo ID. A driver license, state ID or passport. New Jersey law requires a licensed dealer to record one for every precious metals purchase, so there is no sale without it.
- The whole lot, unsorted. Flatware, coins, jewelry, bars, the unmarked pieces and the ones you suspect are plate. Sorting is the free part of the service, and the doubted piece is often the one that tests as sterling.
- Everything exactly as you found it. Tarnish does not cost you a cent, and untouched surfaces protect collector value on signed and antique pieces.
- Sets and pairs kept together. A complete flatware service, a matched tea set or a full coin album can be worth more whole than in pieces.
- Any paperwork that came with it. Appraisals, receipts, pattern names, coin albums and grading labels all help support value above melt. Helpful, never required.
- Your own estimate, if you ran one. Bring the number from the calculator or the formula above and compare it against the math we do in front of you. We like informed sellers.
That is everything. One trip, one counter, and you leave with cash or with your silver, never with a fee.
Sell silver questions, answered
What silver items are worth the most when selling?
By what actually crosses our counters, sterling flatware and tea sets top the list because of sheer weight, followed by pre-1965 US silver coins, bullion bars and rounds, and sterling jewelry. A full flatware service routinely holds more silver than a whole box of jewelry. Bullion is the simplest to price because its purity and weight are stamped on it, and coins can carry collector premiums above their metal.
How much is a sterling flatware service for 8 worth?
A typical sterling service for 8 holds roughly 600 to 1,200 grams of real silver once knife blades and weighted parts are set aside, and heavy patterns run more. Multiply the sterling grams by 0.925, divide by 31.1035 to get troy ounces, and multiply by the live spot price for the melt value. The only way to know your set's number is to weigh the actual sterling, which we do free.
Are the knives in my flatware set solid sterling?
Almost never. Standard sterling knives have a stainless steel blade and a thin sterling handle shell filled with cement or resin, so a knife that feels heavy contains only a small amount of silver. This is the most common reason a set weighs less in silver than it does on a kitchen scale, and it is why we separate knives before weighing and quote only on real metal.
Should I polish my silver before selling it?
No. Leave every piece exactly as you found it. Tarnish is a surface reaction that does not touch the silver underneath, so it has no effect on a weight-based offer, and an untouched surface protects whatever collector value a signed or antique piece may carry. Bring it in as it is and let the scale and the test do the talking.
How can I tell if my silverware is sterling or plate at home?
Turn a piece over and read the mark. Sterling is stamped 925, Sterling or STER. Plate is marked EPNS, Silver Plate, A1, IS or often nothing at all. A magnet is a rough second check because sterling is not magnetic, though plenty of plated pieces are non-magnetic too. The definitive answer is the free XRF test at the counter, so bring the uncertain pieces with the marked ones.
What are my pre-1965 coins worth?
US dimes, quarters and half dollars struck before 1965 are 90 percent silver, so each carries a fixed amount of metal: 0.0723 troy ounces of pure silver per dime, 0.1808 per quarter and 0.3617 per half dollar, priced at the live spot rate. Morgan and Peace dollars hold 0.7734 troy ounces each. Dates, mint marks and condition are checked first, because a collector premium beats melt on the right coin.
Do you buy Gorham silver?
Yes. Gorham is a real sterling silver manufacturer, and pieces marked Gorham sterling are tested and weighed the same as any other sterling flatware or hollowware, priced against the live silver spot price.
Do you buy weighted sterling like candlesticks and trophies?
Yes, with an honest caveat. Weighted pieces are marked sterling but filled with cement or pitch for stability, so most of what the kitchen scale reads is filler, not silver. We separate the sterling shell value from the filler in front of you and quote only on real metal. The piece is still worth bringing in, just not at its full bathroom-scale weight.
Is silver plate worth selling?
Usually not, and we say so plainly. Electroplated pieces carry a silver layer measured in microns over base metal, so there is no meaningful metal to buy, and we identify plate for free and hand it back rather than quote a token number. The exceptions are antique pieces with genuine age or maker interest, which is a collector question rather than a melt question, so bring those in for a look.
What if my silver has no marks at all?
Bring it anyway. Older American coin silver, some foreign pieces and handmade items can be genuine silver with no mark, and worn marks disappear with a century of polishing. The XRF analyzer reads the true metal content in seconds without damaging the piece, so an unmarked piece that tests as silver is bought at its real purity, and one that tests as plate costs you nothing to learn about.
How do I estimate my silver's value before I come in?
Weigh the pieces you believe are solid silver in grams, multiply by the purity for their standard, sterling at 0.925 or coin silver at 0.900, divide by 31.1035 and multiply by the live spot price. The silver calculator runs that arithmetic for you. Treat the result as a floor estimate, because it cannot see collector premiums, and remember knife blades and weighted parts must come out of the weight.
Do I have to sell everything I bring in?
No. The evaluation is free, the offer is itemized, and you choose piece by piece. Plenty of sellers take cash for the scrap sterling and common coins, keep the pieces with family meaning, and leave with both money and their keepsakes. Declining costs nothing, and your silver goes home with you exactly as it arrived.
What do I need to sell silver in New Jersey?
A valid government-issued photo ID, which New Jersey law requires a licensed dealer to record for every precious metals purchase, and the silver itself. No appointment is needed at any of the eight Cash 4 Gold Trading Post stores: Aberdeen, Brick, East Brunswick, Farmingdale, Manalapan, Middlesex, Millstone and New Brunswick. Most visits take about 15 to 30 minutes.
What is the silver price per gram?
The silver price per gram tracks the live spot price for pure silver, divided down from the troy-ounce quote and multiplied by your item's purity, 0.925 for sterling or 0.999 for bullion. The silver calculator shows today's per-gram figure, and we confirm it against your item's certified weight at the counter before any offer.
How much is silver worth?
Silver's worth tracks the live spot price for the pure metal, then scales down by your item's purity and up by its weight: sterling flatware and jewelry at 0.925 pure, coin silver at 0.900, and bullion close to pure. Every piece is tested and weighed on a certified scale in front of you, so the number you hear is built from those two facts, not a flat estimate.
Where to go next
Where to sell silver · Where to sell scrap silver · Estate and inherited lots · Buy silver · All FAQs