Silver is a fascinating substance. It is a highly reflective white metal that is wonderfully malleable and ductile. It is also an excellent conductor of both heat and electricity. In many ways, silver is the quintessential metal, possessing all the beneficial attributes common to metals without the undesirable propensity to oxide or corrode found in base metals.
So it isn’t surprising that silver has been used as money for thousands of years by mankind. However, pure silver is too soft for coinage, silverware or jewelry. Therefore, it is usually alloyed with other metals to improve its strength and hardness. The most famous of these silver alloys is sterling silver, an alloy of 92.5% silver and 7.5% base metal – usually copper.
I’m going to use the term sterling silver in this article as a catchall for solid silver, even though other silver alloys have also been used. In silverware, these other alloys have varied from German 12 loth silver, which is 75% fine, up to French 1st quality, an alloy of 95% silver that is purer than sterling. In any case, the differences between these various silver alloys are largely academic. They all look and behave very much alike in practice.
Although coins are the best known form of silver as money, sterling silverware gradually developed into a monetary alternative in medieval Europe. For many centuries, sterling flatware and hollowware were effectively used as a primitive savings account. This tradition began with the European aristocracy and was eventually adopted by the wealthy merchant class.
Sterling silverware was faithfully passed down from parent to child within rich households over successive generations. As a secure, tangible form of wealth in a very uncertain world, it is no surprise the wealthy favored sterling silverware. But it also served a very important second purpose. Silver possesses bactericidal properties – the ability to kill many harmful microbes on contact – that made it ideal for tableware.
This is where sayings like “born with a silver spoon in his mouth” originated. The wealthy and powerful naturally gravitated towards sterling silverware because it afforded a degree of protection against disease. In contrast, the lower classes had to use cheaper wooden tableware that conferred no such benefit.
This European preference for sterling silverware was also passed down to their American colonists. Most colonists in the 18th century considered a well-appointed silver cabinet to be an absolute necessity for a well-to-do household. This was particularly the case because silver and gold coins were often in short supply in colonial America. Consequently, sterling silverware was widely viewed as an alternative savings account.
Sterling silver’s reign as another form of savings persisted until the 1860s. That is the decade when Nevada’s famous Comstock Lode was commercially exploited, flooding the global market with cheap silver. As a result, most European governments reacted by officially demonetizing silver. This meant an individual could no longer bring raw silver (or silverware) to a national mint and have it converted directly into money.
The final step in silver’s demonetization occurred about 100 years later, in the 1960s. From the 1860s until the 1960s, many nations had continued to use silver in their fiduciary coinage. Fiduciary coinage is when the bullion value of the metal used in a coin is less than its face value. Fiduciary coinage is, in other words, token coinage.
As the spot price of silver began to rise in the 1960s, many countries found that the bullion value of their fiduciary silver coins began to exceed their stated face value, thus leading to widespread hoarding. Most countries quickly removed silver from their coinage, replacing it with base metal. For example, the U.S. changed over in 1964 while Switzerland and Canada followed suit in 1967.
This global demonetization had a devastating effect on sterling silverware. Once considered a surrogate for money, silver soon became just another commodity. This, in conjunction with changing lifestyles, led to a broad decline in the use of silver flatware. Sterling silverware is now widely viewed as completely out of step with today’s informal living and appropriate only for formal occasions. This is a complete falsehood, but it does grant intelligent collectors, investors and average people a rarely seen investment opportunity.
Right now it is possible to acquire fine antique sterling silverware for unbelievably low prices. For example, I recently came across a beautiful set of six French silver-gilt teaspoons that were made in Paris during the Belle Époque era, circa 1900. They are classically styled and eminently usable, even though they are more than a century old.
And the asking price is only $200, not much more than the average monthly cell phone or cable bill. This heirloom quality sterling silverware will not only last for hundreds of years to come, but will almost certainly appreciate in value as well. Sterling silverware, the original savings account, is still a great place to stash your extra cash.
