Cutlery Silver (800)

Inherit an old canteen of cutlery, or unearth a heavy set at a car-boot sale, and you will nearly always meet the same stamp: 800 - often flanked by a crescent moon and a crown. Those marks confirm that the piece is solid silver with a fineness of 800 thousandths, meaning it holds 80 % pure silver. Cutlery silver is thus the most common form of scrap silver found across central Europe, and it carries a measurable melt value that follows directly from the current silver price.

Origins and historical background

The 800 alloy took hold in German-speaking Europe from the mid-19th century as a compromise: pure silver (999) is too soft for flatware and scratches quickly, while sterling (925) was dearer and rooted in the anglophone world. 800 silver offered enough hardness for daily use while staying affordable for the middle classes. Germany's imperial hallmarking act of 1884 prescribed the crescent-and-crown mark as an official guarantee stamp, in force nationwide from 1888 - a system still used to identify such pieces today.

In France, 800 silver was known as the deuxième titre (second standard, 800/1000), while the premier titre denoted the higher 950 alloy; Austrian pieces often carry the Diana head together with the numeral 3 for the third fineness standard (800).

Reading the marks and hallmarks

Where official guarantee marks are missing, a maker's mark (for example WMF, Bruckmann, Koch & Bergfeld) can hint at origin - but it is no proof of fineness. When in doubt, an X-ray fluorescence analysis or an acid test settles the question.

Working out the melt value

The material value of a piece of flatware follows three steps:

Melt value = gross weight (g) x fineness (0.800) x silver price (EUR/g)

Example: a tablespoon weighs 70 g, silver stands at 0.95 EUR/g.

70 g x 0.800 x 0.95 EUR/g = 53.20 EUR melt value

The silver calculator supplies the current silver price in euro per gram; the full result including a buying deduction is given by the melt value calculator.

Solid versus plated - the decisive difference

Many pieces look like 800 silver but are merely plated: a thin layer of silver (EPNS - electroplated nickel silver) is deposited electrically onto a copper or nickel base. These have no worthwhile melt value. Tell-tale signs:

• Solid: stamp 800 plus a guarantee mark, evenly heavy in the hand
• Plated: marks such as EPNS, 90, 100 (grams of silver per 24 spoons), no fineness stamp
• Wear: on plated pieces the yellowish base metal shows through at the edges of handles

Buying and disposal

Scrap-silver dealers and refineries usually pay 75-88 % of the melt value for 800 flatware, depending on quantity, condition and the current market. Complete, well-kept sets from noted makers often fetch far more than pure material value on the collector and auction markets; here it pays to compare the melt proceeds against the collector value.

Tax treatment in Ireland

When a private individual sells cutlery silver, any gain is liable to Ireland's Capital Gains Tax at 33 %, after the annual personal exemption of EUR 1,270. Unlike Germany's one-year holding rule, Ireland gives no relief for how long the item was held. Silver itself does not enjoy the VAT exemption granted to investment gold: a dealer's sale of silver carries the standard Irish VAT rate of 23 %, though a dealer buying second-hand from private hands may apply the margin scheme, so that VAT falls only on the trading margin.

This is not tax advice - for a binding ruling consult a tax adviser or the Revenue Commissioners.

In a nutshell

Cutlery silver stamped 800 is solid silver from the age of the bourgeois dinner table, with a clearly calculable material value. Once you know the weight, the fineness and the current silver price, you can work out the melt value in seconds - and then decide whether melting down or reselling is the better call.