Category Archives: Silver

I have 193 troy ounces of silver electrical contacts to recycle. Can you refine this? – Thanks from Don in Salt Lake City, Utah

Hi Don,

Silver has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal. That is why it is used in a variety of industries and applications. Silver electrical contacts are commonly used in circuit breakers, relays, switches and electrical discharge machining (EDM) applications.

We do refine silver electrical contacts.  This material typically comes to us in gallon size buckets or drums and we pay about $10-$15 per pound depending on the quality and amount of silver they contain. The silver is refined and put back into industries that need it.

Based on a conversion rate of 1 pound to 14.5833 troy ounces, we estimate that you have about 13 pounds of silver electrical contacts.  As such, we could return about $132 – $198 for your silver material.

Thanks for your question and thanks for recycling!

Is a silver tea service generally more valuable than the silver content? From Heidi in Central Missouri.

Hi Heidi,

There is not an easy yes or no answer to this question. There are many factors that you need to consider if you are thinking of reselling silver tea service such as the condition, completeness, brand, quality and collectability. As refiners, we only take into account the market price of silver and the fine silver content by weight.

Given this, pieces that are broken or damaged are ideal for refining. We are also sent lot of mismatched sets and random silverware that do not go with a larger collection. If you have any of these items, selling for the silver content would probably be your best way to go.

If you have a branded, complete set that is in good condition, you might want to have it appraised by an antique dealer and sell it to them or consider selling on eBay or Craigslist.  Of course, an antique dealer or Pawn shop will probably offer you a fraction of its market value as they need to sell it at market price and make a profit and eBay and Craigslist have drawbacks as well.

Also, the price of silver changes daily. In the past 52 weeks the silver price has fluctuated between $13.27 USD and $19.80 USD. When selling to a refiner, we would recommend keeping an eye on the price of silver and knowing their turnaround time. Here are a few blog posts that deal with sterling silver that might be helpful:

Silver Cookware and Serving Pieces
What Do All These Markings Mean on My Silverware
Refining Silver Flatware and Tableware

If you have a lot of time on your hands, you can evaluate the many options you have and see where you think that you will get the best return.  You can estimate the silver value by using our silver value calculator.

Hello, I have several old x-rays that have been deemed trash and I have been left in charge of destroying/recycling them. I’ve been told that you can melt them down and get silver from them. Is this true? Who would I need to talk to about having this done? Thank you! From Kevin in Charleston, West Virginia

Hi Kevin,

X-ray film does contain silver that can be extracted by precious metal refiners like Arch Enterprises, but each individual X-ray contains a very small amount of silver, so even sending a few pounds of film is typically not worth the shipping cost. To make refining X-ray film worthwhile, one typically needs at least 300-400 pounds of X-ray film.

Refining X-ray film is not a simple process. The melting process utilizes refining equipment that will withstand very high heats for extracting the silver from the other components of the X-ray film. Additionally, if you are dealing with medical information, we typically need to follow HIPAA compliant guidelines during the refining process.

We would recommend taking all film out of any paper jackets and storing in large 500 gallon drums. If you have more than a couple drums then it would be worth the shipping costs to refine this material.

I have several very heavy large silver serving trays, 55 pieces of silver plate and sterling silver utensils, and another 30 pieces of assorted sterling and silver on copper pieces. I have about 30 pounds of this stuff. Watched your videos and your website is very good. I need to either sell for scrap or melt to refine the various pieces. I am just tired of storing this stuff. What’s my next step?  Thank you for your informative videos. From Matt in Tulsa, Oklahoma

Hi Matt,

Glad to hear that you watched the videos about valuing sterling silverware.  Since you watched them, you now know that the pieces that are silver plated over copper have very little value and that some of your other items may be weighted or contain parts made from stainless steel.  Based on this, we would recommend sending in only your items that are clearly marked 925 sterling silver, sterling, or 800 and holding out any plated items, and removing the weighting materials from any items.

For the benefit of all who read this, silver plated copper pieces are not good candidates for precious metal refining as they contain very little silver.  If you have a lot of this material, you may be better off selling these to a scrap metal dealer. If you have pieces that are not marked sterling, you may have to conduct some research on your own to determine if they are in fact sterling. We would recommend first running a strong magnet over your items and if the magnet sticks to anything, they are not sterling. Our testing equipment would determine this, but we would hate to see people pay to ship in worthless items.

If you see any of the following markings on your pieces, chances are they are not sterling silver and you can take them out of the refining pile. These markings indicate something other than sterling such a plated or nickel silver.

Nickel Silver – or Alpaca
Silvertone
Plated Silver – Marked as EP or EPNS
G – German Silver

To get a rough estimate on what your sterling silver items are worth, make a pile of items that you know are sterling and that are not weighted. Weigh these items together and then you can use our silver value calculator to find the market value of these items. You can send all your items into our refinery and we will process and evaluate all the items. We typically pay 75% of the fine silver content by weight for your items. On your packing slip, please indicate the following options:

• If you would like us return any non sterling items back to you.
• If you would like us to call you before refining.

Otherwise, we will refine all the available sterling silver and recycle any metal that is not precious. If you would like more information on silver refining please visit the following resources:

Refining Sterling Silver Flatware Information
Finding the Value of Sterling Silver Video

I have a good amount of 925 silver jewelry, as well as some 14k gold, and some 22k gold from India. I may be going into the gold buying business and I have a question. What you are paying per troy oz of each? I know it depends upon the daily precious metals market, but is there a standard percentage of that you pay? Please advise, Thanks! From Jack in Birmingham, Alabama.

Hi Jack,

We do work with many people and stores that run gold buying businesses so we may be able to help you. As you noted in your question, the market price of silver and gold will have a major influence on how much we can pay for gold and silver items. Because these prices fluctuate daily, we use the commodity price of the day that we receive the material at our refining facility.

On 925 sterling silver items we typically pay 75% of the fine silver content by weight because the value of silver is relatively low when compared to gold and yet the time and energy involved in refining the material and running the transaction through our system is similar. Since gold is trading for over $1,000 UDS per troy ounce all of this year, we can pay a higher percentage based on the amount you send and the purity of your items. Keep in mind that it takes about the same amount of energy to refine 1 ounce of gold as it does to refine 3 ounces, so it is more cost efficient for us to refine larger quantities at one time. For estimation purposes, we typically pay out according to the schedule below:

• 70% of the fine gold value by weight for less than 0.5 fine ounce of gold
• 80% for less than 1 fine ounce
• 85% for 1-2 fine ounces
• 90% for more than 2 fine ounce

We do offer slightly higher returns to many of our customers who run gold buying businesses and meet our frequency and volume minimums. Arch is accredited by the Better Business Bureau and maintains fast, professional service in an industry where ethical business practices are many times questionable. We are here for our customers to answer questions on our blog and are always just a phone call away.

Good luck in your new business.