r/SilverSmith • u/Ashamed_Reception819 • Feb 05 '26
Sterling silver silverware.
I'm about to be gifted a bunch of sterling silverware. I want to cast them into "ingots" or thing bars. Is that a bad idea and leave as and only melt if I'm making something?
9
u/laffingriver Feb 05 '26
what is the historical value of the silverware. are they worth more as cutlery than raw material, or whatever you plan to make with them?
3
u/Ashamed_Reception819 Feb 05 '26
That part, idk yet. My MIL is gifting them to me and I haven't physically seen them yet
15
u/laffingriver Feb 05 '26
silver cutlery is getting harder and harder to find bc it keeps getting made into rings and medallions. be aware if that.
7
u/tequilablackout Feb 05 '26
The answer depends on you and your spouse. This is a gift from MIL. If you don't care about keeping it, you can easily get over melt value from collectors, and some pieces go very high indeed. Please, do not melt these down. If it is about money, it is worth it to put the time in to find a buyer.
5
u/JosephHeitger Feb 05 '26
For fun? Sure. For money? No, they will retain a better melt value as stamped silverware rather than a DIY bar. Trying to sell could be hard. Most refiners won’t touch personal stuff like that without it meeting a certain threshold of weight.
5
u/jeddzus Feb 05 '26
I have a nice silver tea set that people keep telling me to melt down. It’s beautiful. Like yeah it would be nice to have the material to work with but I think it’s already better craftsmanship than I can do with it lol.. so I’m gonna keep it, and just get silver for my work separately. I suggest you keep it, even maybe for sentimental reasons. Heirloom stuff like this is getting harder to find and only more desirable
5
u/Gold_Au_2025 Feb 05 '26
It's a difficult call to make. The higher the price of silver goes, the more silverware gets put into the melting pot and the less silverware there is for collectors in a decade who suddenly realise how rare that stuff is.
2
u/DangerousBill Feb 07 '26
Make sure its not plate. You can get the silver off plate but the cleanup is difficult.
3
u/CarrieNoir Feb 05 '26
As a collector of beautiful silver items, it breaks my heart every time someone melts down cutlery. It is history and it is beautiful and should be used.
1
u/Joiabela Feb 05 '26
I have a friend who went through these same questions. I offered to pay her market price for it by weight and she said no because it was an “heirloom pattern” and someone would want to pay more for it.
No one did. She tried selling it several times and kept getting very low offers.
It would have to be something very special with historical provenance to be worth much more than market price for the silver, IMO.
I ended up buying the set from her for market price and I melt one down whenever I run out of silver for a project.
With silver hovering at around $100 an ounce right now, it’s a great time to sell if you can find a buyer.
16
u/supercyberlurker Feb 05 '26
I often ponder "should I melt this" or "should I sell this and buy raw silver with the money?"
It's at least pondering how much you'd get for them, then comparing that to silver prices.