Take it in order: gather everything in one place, separate solid silver from plate using the hallmarks, weigh the solid pieces, set aside anything that might be worth more than its metal, then decide. Nothing needs to happen quickly, and nothing should be thrown away or polished before you have looked at it properly.
Step one: gather it all together
Silver spreads out over a lifetime. Check the dining room cabinet, the sideboard, the loft, wardrobe boxes, the backs of drawers, jewellery boxes, and the cupboard where the tray lives. Bring everything into one place and lay it out on a towel.
Then sort into three piles: pieces with a visible hallmark, pieces that look like silver but have no mark you can find, and pieces marked EPNS, EP, A1 or similar. Do not discard anything at this stage. Broken chains, single earrings, bent forks, dented mugs and lidless teapots all pay the same per gram as perfect pieces, and the third pile still needs a proper check before it goes anywhere.
Step two: work out what is actually silver
The mark that settles it is the lion passant, a small walking lion in profile, on English and Welsh silver. Scottish pieces carry a lion rampant or, on much of the last three centuries of work, a thistle. Marks are 2 to 3mm across and frequently worn: a 10x loupe and a lamp at a low angle make the difference between finding them and not.
Where to look: the back of the stem on flatware, the underside of hollowware and separately inside each lid, the underside of trays near the rim or a foot, and inside the shank of a ring. The hallmarks guide shows each symbol, and the plate versus solid guide covers the marks that mean base metal.
Mixed sets are entirely normal. A canteen assembled and repaired over eighty years may hold sterling spoons and plated forks together. Check pieces individually.
Step three: weigh it
Digital kitchen scales in grams are fine. Weigh the solid pieces together, excluding stainless knife blades, wooden and bone handles, glass liners, canteen boxes and weighted bases. Weigh silver-handled knives separately, because a 90g knife holds only 25 to 35g of actual silver.
That total tells you a great deal immediately. Sterling holds £— of silver per gram at today's price, and we pay £— per gram of it.
| What you've found | Sterling weight | We pay |
|---|---|---|
| A drawer of odd pieces | 300g | £— |
| Canteen, six place | 1,400g | £— |
| Tea service with tray | 2,500g | £— |
| A full house's worth | 5,000g | £— |
Illustrative weights at today's live rate. Use the calculator with your own total.
Step four: pull out anything exceptional
This is the step people skip, and it is the one that costs money. Before anything is sold for metal, set aside pieces that fit any of these:
- Georgian or earlier, roughly pre-1830. A different market entirely.
- A recognised maker. Paul Storr, Hester Bateman, Paul de Lamerie, Omar Ramsden and their peers command multiples of metal value.
- Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau or notable Art Deco design, where the design is the value.
- Armorials, crests or documented provenance linking the piece to a family or event.
- A complete cased service in good condition, especially in a sought-after named pattern.
- Marks from a closed assay office: York, Exeter, Newcastle, Chester or Glasgow. The supply is finite and collectors pay for it. See where we buy for what each mark looks like.
Anything in that list deserves a specialist valuation before it goes near a melt. Everything else, which is most of it, is usually worth more as metal than it realises at auction after commission.
Your actual options
Keep it. A perfectly reasonable answer, and worth saying out loud, because inherited silver often carries more meaning than money. Keeping one or two pieces and selling the rest is very common.
Sell as metal. Quick, certain, and for ordinary Victorian and Edwardian silver in mixed condition, usually the best financial outcome too.
Sell as antiques. Right for the exceptional pieces above, wrong for the rest. Expect 15 to 20% commission plus fees and a wait of weeks to months, with no guarantee of a sale.
Get a formal valuation. Necessary for probate and for insurance. If you are dealing with an estate, our probate guide covers what executors need.
What not to do
- Do not polish anything. Tarnish costs nothing and polishing removes a trace of metal while wearing hallmarks fainter.
- Do not have anything restored or re-plated. It costs more than it adds.
- Do not throw away the damaged pieces. Broken sterling pays exactly what intact sterling pays.
- Do not rush. Silver keeps. There is no deadline, and no reputable buyer will pressure you towards one.
When you are ready, weigh the solid pieces, get a quote, and post it with a free tracked label. Payment lands within 48 hours of the parcel reaching us, and anything we cannot buy comes back free.
Frequently asked questions
I've inherited silver. Where do I start?
Gather everything in one place, separate solid silver from plate by checking each piece for a lion passant hallmark, weigh the solid pieces in grams, and set aside anything that might be Georgian, by a known maker, or with provenance. Then decide. Nothing needs to happen quickly.
How do I know if inherited silver is valuable?
Metal value is weight times purity times the silver price, so a kitchen scale gives you a good estimate in minutes. Value above metal depends on age, maker, design period and provenance, which is worth a specialist opinion on anything pre-1830 or by a recognised silversmith.
Should I clean inherited silver before selling it?
No. Tarnish is a surface film with no effect on price, and polishing removes a small amount of metal and wears the hallmarks you may need to identify the piece. Send it exactly as you found it.
Is it worth selling small amounts of inherited silver?
Yes, provided the lot reaches our £50 minimum. There are no per-item charges and no minimum lot fees, so combining odd pieces into one parcel costs nothing and often clears the threshold comfortably.
What if some pieces turn out to be plated?
We identify them, tell you what they are, and return them free, insured and tracked. Mixed lots are completely normal, so just note on the form that you are unsure and there is nothing to worry about.
Do I need a valuation before selling?
Only if you need one for probate or insurance, or if a piece might be worth more than its metal. For ordinary inherited silverware, the live calculator gives you the metal value immediately and our XRF test confirms it precisely on arrival.
Can I sell inherited silver if it's part of an estate?
Yes, though executors need the authority to sell. Our probate guide sets out what is normally required and how estate submissions are handled.