Pricing a Civil-War Era Goblet

As I whittle down my last death pile items, I pulled out a silver goblet. Heavily tarnished I managed to clean it up a bit with the last of my Weiman’s Silver Wipes–my go-to product for silver. The piece was engraved “Charley, November 29, 1863” but was otherwise unmarked. No maker’s mark or silver mark though I looked high and low. I was pretty sure it was at least coin silver, if not sterling, still being “pretty sure” is not good enough! I always have some silver acid testing solution on hand, but the bottle had been open for over six months and was not viable any more. Thankfully more was on the way.

It arrived the other day and I could finally find out for sure what I had. I scraped the bottom along the testing stone, applied a few drops and waited a few seconds. Wiping the liquid off revealed the deep red of silver. Bingo!

Now I could say with confidence that it was sterling silver. But with any precious metal weight is also a crucial piece of information in helping to set the price.

At 104 grams the melt value of this goblet is $94, so minimally I could get that or close to it from a refinery at today’s price.

Obviously condition matters too and this piece has bits of wear and damage–dings, a rip along the rim and still more tarnish–and it is rather plain. The engraving while nicely done, has no historical significance. It would have much more value if it had some connection to the civil war–perhaps as a gift to some major or general.

My last research task was to google antique sterling wine goblets currently for sale to get an idea of prices. Those that had maker’s marks, heavier weights and fancier designs, were well up there in price.

In the end I put all these pieces of information together, cogitated a while, and came up with a price of $148. Above melt value, but not egregiously so. Will it sell? Time will tell. But I am glad to have it listed!

Wishing you happy hunting,

Karen