What is my silver marked “Weighted Sterling” and what does it mean?

What does Weighted Sterling Mean?

Understanding items marked “Sterling Weighted” need special knowledge to understand both the term itself and the item’s value.

Items marked “Sterling Weighted” contain just little silver usually representing around 10% of the item’s total weight. We did an experiment for finding out how much silver was used to craft a candle holder. Disillusioning 90% of the candle holder’s total mass were nothing but gypsum what is the reason why it is required by law to mark those certain items with the term “WEIGHTED” to make clear that an important part of the marked item is NOT made of silver.

The term “Weighted” refers to the fact that non-precious filling materials were used to give the item stability. We measured the thickness of the silver-skin and determined only disappointing 0.24 millimeters. It is immediately clear that such a super thin layer of silver reflects just little material value.

Sterling Weighted items usually have no or little collector’s value as renowned silversmiths or manufacturers refused to produce “weighted” items as the terms reputation was always rather bad than glamorous. Very nice crafted items may have a certain collector’s value but those items are really rare.

Filling Materials Used for Weighted Sterling

Common materials used to fill “Weighted Sterling” items are gypsum, sand, cement and sometimes even kind of a concrete-mix. All filling materials need to be marked.

Silver-Stake In Weighted Sterling

Only 10% of the candle holder’s total mass were made of sterling silver. Always consider the little amount of silver hiding in weighted sterling marked items.