posted 12-30-2022 01:43 PM            

There is only one non-destructive way to tell what a piece of metal is that is 100 percent accurate and that is to use an X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer. Scratching, acid, touchstones, smelling, tasting, and all of the other methods used by various people cannot tell what exactly what are the percentages of the various elements in an alloy. For example, silver plating can easily give a false positive for solid silver. An "XRF gun" is a handheld device that is about the size and shape of a hand drill except that it shoots an X-ray beam into the metal and it has a small screen that then tells you the exact percentages of each element that is in the object. Sadly, XRF guns can cost eight to fifteen thousand dollars so unless one is in the business where one would regularly need to use such a device such as some jewelers or pawn shops, scrap metal dealers, etc. it does not pay for an ordinary person to buy one. The best bet for ordinary folks is to find a local jeweler or pawn shop or such who own one and ask them to test your object for you with their XRF gun. If you make friends with them they may do it for free or if not they may charge you a small fee. A good rule of thumb for any object that you think might be silver is that if it is not marked as silver then you can be pretty sure that it is not silver unless it is something that is known to be commonly unmarked such as mid 19th century US coin silver. Your salt cellar frame does not appear to be such and so it is highly unlikely to be unmarked silver of any purity and is most likely to be either silver plated or just a shiney silver colored metal of some kind. If something is unmarked and you are thinking based on your experience that it could silver then you should get it XRF tested. Finally, more expensive pieces of silver are sometimes marked with fake silver markings to lure less experienced buyers so always be careful on more expensive things.