/biz/ - Business & Finance

>>56616497
>trying to figure out how much sterling silver tableware was made - how much has been melted to = remaining quantities
It's pretty much impossible to tell. But i'd wager a majority of the existing silverware have been melted down during the past few decades (80s onward). And not much is being produced nowaday, it's considered an outdated way of savings, and incredibly inefficient too. Back in the days (100 and + years ago i mean), 80% of the price of the silverware was the metal content and 20% the work of the craftman.
Now the ratio are inverted : it's only 20% spot value of the final price and 80% the work of the craftman (often more). Which means even if you manage to sell for spot price, you'll immediately be down -80%.

So if it's not an investment vehicle, the only use left is to enjoy beautiful things and flex on your guests. Problem is modern richfags don't know anything about silverware anymore, so they wont even notice the flex, and the nouveau-riches probably consider it hasbeen and haughty.

Personally, i don't know anybody who own silverware, no matter how old they are. And if my relatives asked to all the people they know, the number would still most likely be zero.
At best some people own silver plated stuff they got for their weddings as gifts and use it for big celebrations, that's it.
Imho brand new silverware became so outrageously expensive lately because the demand is basically non-existent.

It's only my experience, but it's pretty telling i believe. The french hallmark system slightly changed in 1973 : the purity went from .950 to the standard .925 sterling, and the mark itself saw few modifications (numbers and letters positions). Since i started to scrapmax, i now have maybe 18kg of silverware. Among those, i never saw even just ONCE the post-1973 hallmarks.