What to do with 3 John Muir, Jr. Glasgow spoons?

[One4uTwo4me]

I have 3 John Muir, Jr. Glasgow 1830 spoons. What is the sterling content?
Thank you.

[silvermakersmarks]

They are 100% sterling, but by definition sterling silver is 925 parts pure silver in 1000. I suspect that you meant to ask what is the silver content, the answer to which would be .925. The purpose of the British hallmarking system is to guarantee the silver standard.

Phil

[AG2012]

Hi,
There is rathec common misconception, sterling being the synonym for solid silver (unlike silver - plating).
As explained above, sterling is only one of the standards (925 parts of silver per 1000 weight units of the alloy).

If you measure the weight of your spoons you can easily calculate the exact amount of pure silver in them (92.5% of total weight).
Regards

[Aguest]

Certainly these are sterling silver 92.5 percent.

When I was reading about the history of Scotland Silver, I did find a reference to an "Old Scottish Standard" which had a very slightly higher percentage of silver, and it really was not used very much after 1800, I am trying to find this reference somewhere but I have not yet found it.

I will try to find it again.

It was just a tiny bit higher than 92.5 percent, almost negligible, and I hope this information was correct, I am just the messenger....

[Aguest]

Going over my notes again, the "Old Scottish Standard" was actually slightly lower, not higher, sorry about that...

I will try to find the reference to this "Old Scottish Standard"....

[buckler]

There are references in Jackson. Try p.533 for Edinburgh, where the sterling standard was imposed in 1720, " although in practice the the old standard was continued until 1759" , when the thistle mark was introduced. The Scots were, and still are, a of rather independent minds, and provincial silver was of uncertain standard until even later .