Another Ebay sporran!!!

[Jock Scot]

I believe Scotland started marking silver in Edinburgh 1457 with a date stamp being added in 1759... It was really a guarantee that the item was silver, and not a requirement unless you were selling it as silver.

I am guessing that for a lot of fancy goods silver was a lot cheaper than gold, and being malleable a lot easier to work with than iron or other metals...

With the price of metals today however I would be surprised at a seller selling a huge chunk of silver without knowing what it is... After all might turn out to be Pt950...

The owner could have the unmarked piece tested and IF it meets the technical requirements, the owner could have the piece hallmarked with THIS YEARS hallmarks. Well that would allow the owner to legally sell the piece as silver, the problem then might be, that a purchaser might not want a 150 year old piece of metal(silver, as we now know) with a 2012 date stamp on it.

[madmacs]

The owner could have the unmarked piece tested and IF it meets the technical requirements, the owner could have the piece hallmarked with THIS YEARS hallmarks. Well that would allow the owner to legally sell the piece as silver, the problem then might be, that a purchaser might not want a 150 year old piece of metal(silver, as we now know) with a 2012 date stamp on it.

He could also have it tested at most jewellers to verify if it was silver without it getting hallmarked

[Paul Henry]

He could also have it tested at most jewellers to verify if it was silver without it getting hallmarked

Unless it is hallmarked it cannot legally be sold as silver, of course a test can be done to check if it is indeed silver, but that test has no bearing on the item if it is sold, Hallmarks in the UK are very important in showing if the item is indeed a precious metal and are a guarantee of metal content

[Jock Scot]

He could also have it tested at most jewellers to verify if it was silver without it getting hallmarked

Indeed he could,but without hallmarks he cannot legally sell it as silver and nor can his agent, Ebay for example. Therefore the legal definition and description is "white metal" and is sold and bought under that heading, regardless of whatever the metal might actually be.

[madmacs]

Indeed he could,but without hallmarks he cannot legally sell it as silver and nor can his agent, Ebay for example. Therefore the legal definition and description is "white metal" and is sold and bought under that heading, regardless of whatever the metal might actually be.

And if it were that antique coffee set you were selling me (tea would be useless since I dont drink the brew...) and I liked it, I would probably be more than happy to accept a jeweller telling me it's sterling... I'm guessing you'd tell me it was silver though... I suspect those nice trading standards folks would only call the revenue service if I complained... At which point I guess the issue would be "was it misrepresented..."