Seeking advice on my silver balls . . . . .

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Need advice on my silver balls . . . . . but first the backstory.

These balls have been in my family since I was a kid. My father purchased them from a jewelry store owner probably around the mid-1960's. Dad kept these in the bottom of a freshwater aquarium for years thinking that no one (if they broke into our home) would think of looking in an aquarium for 'precious metals.'

My father mentioned that he bought them as 'scrap silver' from the jeweler. I don't know why a jeweler would look to sell scrap, but then rethinking the time period, I think I understand how and why the jeweler chose to 'create' these 'ingots' for sale.

Back in the 1960's my father would have been in his mid 30's. This country was still under Executive Order 6102, the 1933 order that effectively banned individual ownership of gold coins, gold bullion, and / or gold certificates by US citizens was still in effect.

In 1965, the US removed silver from our circulating coinage as you know. I theorize my father and his jewelry friend were concerned about a secondary Executive Order banning and confiscating silver circulating coinage just as the government did with gold circulating coinage.

It was legal for jewelry stores and makers to own limited quantities of gold for their trade use. I am wondering if my dad's jeweler friend didn't take a bunch of circulating coins and melt them down out of the fear that silver would be confiscated in the same manner as gold? As such, I really don't know the actual composition of these little silver orbs. My assumption is they are 90% silver, but if there is any scrap sterling mixed in (or gold), who knows? Each weighs in at about 650 grams and is the approximate size of an orange (as pictured).

Now the question:

Does anyone have any experience in getting 'scrap metal' such as these assayed? How much should I expect to pay to get an assay / analysis of the metallic content? Any warnings or 'heads-ups' in seeking out these services?

When silver was hovering around and below $20 per ounce, I didn't think much about pursuing having them melted down and exchanged for equal / similar quantities of refined metal(s), but with today's 'enthusiasm' for silver, I would be an idiot not to.

What say you?

Thanks in advance for any and all sage advice.

Zoid

 

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I think you would need to drill a hole in them to check them.

 

Well, @ZoidMeister (who knows their provenance) might not, but anybody buying them who doesn't trust that provenance would want to.

I don't know whether jewelry/pawn/coin shops typically charge for XRF, but if these are of uniform composition, that would tell you whether it's coin silver, sterling, .999, or mongrel/custom blend. As a dealer I'd still want to drill, though, because XRF can't see very deeply into metal. (A millimeter or two of silver would completely mask a ball of, say, 15% tin in lead, with similar density but very little value.)

I also don't think an electromagnetic tester (like Sigma) would know what to think of a ball of silver. I don't have one (Sigma or silver ball), though, so I could be wrong.

 

Or if you want to use them as a stealthy store of wealth, you could just coat them with brass. Everybody would be too busy making jokes to check their internal composition...

 

Are there markings on them?
They look like lead to me

 

never seen those before, but would have been great fishing weights...non-toxic. silver in the 60s was a couplebucks an ounce...I think most dealers would want to know what's inside...a drilling and then weight would be easy to assay...just a scrapeing would still not get in the middle, so yes, a drilling would be the way to go. I would keep um a while longer, or pass them on to the family, but silver is in the 90s today...where to from here?

 

They don't look like silver. However, silver was $1.29 an ounce in 1965, and there wouldn't be much extra profit in faking it with another metal.

 

No marks whatsoever.

They are quite heavy. I lent them to a 'little old lady' who's son is 'supposedly' a coin dealer. They used to be very dark in color, but the lady wanted to make them a bit more presentable, so she polished them with a bit of Tarn-Ex. They were quite bright, but have begun to retone. These will not dent as easily as lead, but I do see the similarity.

Z

 

Hmmmm, I wonder what kind of mold he used in pouring these? Perhaps he was a cannon aficionado?

Those that know, know that tarnished silver has a distinctive 'smell'. Anyone who frequented casinos back in the 60's and early 70's knows, their grandmothers would come home with black hands from handling the silver dollars. They would also carry that distinctive 'silver tarnish' smell (blended in with eau-de-cigarette-smoke).

Anyway, my silver balls carry that tarnish odor . . . . .

Z

 

errr... Uhhhh... Nope... NO COMMENT

 

An XRF tester would be your best bet but they are very expensive and few places have one. Next best thing would find somebody with a Sigma machine. They come with wands that you can plug in to test larger items like this and it'd probably give you a good idea as to what they test out as. You set the machine for the metal you want it to look for and just press the plugged in wand onto it and the arrow moves under a bar on the screen to either red or green indicating it is what is being tested or not.
Short of that there are minor destructive tests that you can get for silver if you scrape a little off and put a drop on the plate to see if it holds up. If you put a sheet of kleenex over it, the metal should appear bright white under the kleenex indicating the surface is at least silver, because it reflects light so well. Also a rare earth magnet will show a slight attraction to it. There should be a subtle pull to it if you move it around it.

If you bring them to a place buying silver they'll likely have something to test them for you, even if you end up declining their offer. They'll probably want to drill into them.

 

Not any attraction to a stationary magnet, but yeah, a moving magnet will drag it around. But copper behaves the same way if it's pure, so this isn't a surefire test.

 

If you are just wanting to sell them, then heat one up and pound it into a pancake to test it.

 

Coin dealers all have XRF and they are accurate too. I dumped a big bag of dimes on my dealers XRF and it immediately showed him the only clad dime in that stack.

 

I think you should put by them back into an aquarium. If you don’t have one, buy a 10 gallon one and fill it with guppies. I like the fancy guppies.

 

Great suggestion. I wonder how hot I would need to get them ?

Z

 

I would leave them as is, That's a nice pair of balls.
drill a small hole to check the consistency then use it to hang them from something. How much do they weigh?

 

650 g / 20 oz. each.

Z

 

I would first do a specific density test. Thet are pretty neat as is, it depends on what you want to do with them. My Brother has a small smelter. I think it uses a Butane bottle. He pours aluminum, copper, etc bars all the time.