Well it does say SILVER

[tamrock]

I picked this up for under 3 bucks. It looks like a solid unplated piece, but only has the word silver. I took to the coin shop to see if they'll use their XRF gun on it and they did and the results are it's only 30% Silver alloyed mostly with copper. They declined to buy it though, because of the high offset combination of metals. Still this thing at 119 grams has the amount of 1.147 Troy oz. of pure silver within it.

 

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[Corvus]

Strange piece. Why even bother using silver at that low an alloy? Some regions do that sort of duplicity; I've found 18K marked Egyptian jewelry that were actually 9K gold. "Silver" is a mark often used in Asia. I have found a small hammered Indian bowl and a clunky Japanese bangle (counterstamped sterling) with that term.

Also weird that your dealer didn't want it for low silver content. What do they do with war nickels and 40% Kennedy halves?

 

[tamrock]

I believe the refinery he sends all his scrap silver to will only except the higher grade of silver alloy. I have sold him silver as low as 80% pure before. As for the war nickels and silver Kennedy clads he doesn't buy those as scrap. He just buys those at his price and sells them at a higher price to either collectors or those who invest in junk silver.