Jewelry Antiques of the 20th Century

What Is The Percent Of Silver Question: Hi, I recently purchased a card holder by reed & barton.

Silver Boxes

Price: $19.49

On the back it said reed & barton 689.

What does the 689 mean in relatio to 925.

Is it 68.9% silver as 925 is 92.5% silver. I am not sure.

And also does it mean that the value is inferior to 925?

thanks Bob

Answer: G’day Robert and many thanks for your query - and your patience - as we have been unable to get online for several days due to the storms here in Australia which knocked out our telephone lines.

The numbers have nothing to do with the quality of the silver as they appear to simply be a design identification mark. As you know the Sterling Silver mark is .925 being the percentage of pure silver as parts per thousand.

The lowest grade acceptable is 800 - often referred to as ‘Low Grade Silver’ and frequently seen in old watch cases etc. But as silver is so cheap - there is no need to ‘Dilute’ it any more than that, so it doesn’t make sense.

Sterling Silver (925) is the world standard so I wouldn’t purchase anything below that anyway, and I’m sure Reed and Barton wouldn’t bother making anything in a less grade unless it was plated. Are you SURE it’s NOT Plated?

You might also like to add this query to my blog at http://how2valuejewelry.com/ as other may have had a similar problem. Can’t hurt anyway and who knows what answers you may get.

Hope this helps…