I guess like everyone else who collects coins I have a container of foreign stuff that I have little interest in except the silver stuff. I just bought a silver/gold test kit on fleabay so before I bring them into the coin shop for redemption I'll check them. Is there any other way to eliminate the ones that look like silver but are most likely not? The aluminum ones are easy but some of the brit and french ones look and sound like silver and if so, I have a bunch of them. Any hints?
Look them up in Krause. You will get better value as well if you presort them into fineness for the dealer. He will have to do this anyway, so you doing it will make it easier for him, (maybe better offer), eliminate all non-silver, and even see if any carry numismatic premiums.
I think most of the British before 1947 are silver. I don't think there are any after that year, but if they are it would be in the highest denominations.
For me, it depends on the price. If everything is 25 cents...I'll take a chance and usually do pretty well (probably about a 90% success rate with my guessing.) If I guess wrong, I only lost a quarter. I'll usually go by look first, then by knowledge, then by ring if I'm not sure at that point. The only ones I guess wrong consistently on are the Swiss coins...sometimes I just can't remember the right dates...
This is an excellent site that was posted recently. Just go down to silver, click, select the country in question and Bingo! The silver values are right there: http://currencydebasement.com/
This is how I got started collecting world coins in 1975. I was looking for cheap silver in junk bins since there was a lot in those days so got a Krause to memorize the various silver contents. Before long I was noticing there were a lot of common base metal coins that were never seen so I started saving them as well. A lot of these have done spectacularly well.
