The Captain strikes again!!

[captain flintlock]

A nice haul for the weekend starting with an early 19th century solid copper Swedish tea kettle for $2.00. At the same yard sale I also picked up these sterling s&p shakers for a whopping whole $1.00. They're crusty so if they don't clean up well I'll just put them in my scrap pile. At a local field auction yesterday, I bought a box lot with a few silver plated items and some old kitchen knives. But....... In the box was a beautiful Speer & Cosper coin silver serving spoon from Chicago circa 1852!! 1.75 ozt. All for $5.00 hammer price! I collect coin silver so I knew it was in there!! No gold but still a fun weekend!

 

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[diggummup]

Nice finds and a belated welcome to Treasurenet. Silver for pennies on the ounce is always good! I don't know a thing about antique tea kettles. I took a quick look and noticed many of them are shined up like new from dealer sites as well as on eBay. I guess patina doesn't play a part in these particular antiques?

 

[Beans]

I would leave the tea kettle as is. Shiny is nice but does not show the true vintage age of the item. I always list that an item can be cleaned in a few minutes but takes years to get the aged look. Up to you of course.

 

[diggummup]

I would leave the tea kettle as is. Shiny is nice but does not show the true vintage age of the item. I always list that an item can be cleaned in a few minutes but takes years to get the aged look. Up to you of course.

I agree, original patina is great. I was just wondering because if you search for antique copper teakettles you will see that many of them are shiny as a new penny. Thought maybe there was an exception to the rule with teakettles or something.

 

[JimDon]

Great finds. I would leave as is too.

 

[captain flintlock]

From what I have read, if they're used for cooking of some sorts it's ok to polish them. I love the look of polished copper but I think I'm more of a purist and I'll keep the aged look. I agree, it takes years for that to happen. Thanks for your thoughts!!

 

[2Minnesota]

Nice tea pot. I like the patina as-is too. But I'm trying to figure out how a person would know that spoon was coin silver. I always look for "Sterling" or "925" and I've seen the word "coin" stamped on a few things. What would I or anyone else look for besides the word "coin"? Thanks!

 

[captain flintlock]

Ok... Here's a quick lesson on coin silver while I'm on my lunch break. Coin silver is generally 85-90% silver. Not much less than sterling so it's definitely worthy of owning. If something is marked "coin", then it's coin silver. Not all coin silver is marked "coin" though. A majority of my collection is not marked coin. Many pieces just have a makers name and sometimes a city as well. This is also the difference of plated items which have their own markings as well. A lot of early coin pieces are considered early American silver as the purity sometimes varied back then before we had a solid source of silver and adopted the "sterling" standard. Many coin spoons are also on the thin side, but there are heavier pieces. Sorry for getting long winded!!

 

[captain flintlock]

just a quick phot example of coin markings. Before I polished them!! This was a lot I picked up at a local auction a couple months ago. $70.00 for all!!


.

 

[2Minnesota]

Ok... Here's a quick lesson on coin silver while I'm on my lunch break. Coin silver is generally 85-90% silver. Not much less than sterling so it's definitely worthy of owning. If something is marked "coin", then it's coin silver. Not all coin silver is marked "coin" though. A majority of my collection is not marked coin. Many pieces just have a makers name and sometimes a city as well. This is also the difference of plated items which have their own markings as well. A lot of early coin pieces are considered early American silver as the purity sometimes varied back then before we had a solid source of silver and adopted the "sterling" standard. Many coin spoons are also on the thin side, but there are heavier pieces. Sorry for getting long winded!!

Thank you! I know I'll but many that are not silver before I figure it out. If the price is right it's worth learning. Thanks for your info!