Silver Items We Refine

When you consider where to sell silver items for the value of their precious metal, it is important to choose a refiner that has extensive experience. Arch Enterprises has earned a reputation as one of the leading silver refiners in the US and works with many of the top photographic film companies and developers to refine the silver from truckloads of photographic paper each year.

This experience coupled with our extensive refining capabilities allows us to provide our clients with the maximum yield from their silver scrap. Some of the more common silver items that we refine include:

• Silver Bars
• Silver Coins
• Sterling Silver Flatware & Serving Sets
• Silver Jewelry (rings, chains, bracelets, earrings, necklaces, etc.)
• Silver Oxide Batteries
• Silver Flake from Photo Film Recovery
• Silver from X-Ray Film

We also refine scrap silver like mirror silver powder, sludge from silver plating, wire, etc.

Common Types of Silver

Sterling Silver - This is probably the most well known type of silver since it is used to produce most jewelry, flatware, and decorative pieces. It is an alloy that contains 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper which is added to give the silver more strength and durability. Sterling silver items are typically stamped with "Sterling", "925" or some other distinctive hallmark.

Fine Silver - Containing 99.9% silver, fine silver is too soft for producing functional items so it is most commonly used to make bullion bars or coins for manufacturing of commodities trading.

Coin Silver in the United States - coin silver is typically 90% silver and 10% copper (according to FTC guidelines). It gets its name from a time when people made it by melting down silver coins which were generally of the 90% silver standard. Of course, since this same process was used all over the world and there was a significant variance in the silver content of coins, the percentage of silver can be harder to determine in older items. Most coin silver items are marked by either "900" or "800," depending on fineness.

Industrial Silver - Different manufacturing applications require different silver alloys. The electronics industry, for instance, uses a copper silver alloy that is an excellent conductor of electricity and heat. The photographic film industry uses silver nitrate.

Plated Silver - Like many metals, silver can be used to plate other metals and plastics. Unfortunately, the refining process for silver plated items is typically so time consuming that this silver is not worth trying to recover.

Arch Enterprises is NOT an antique dealer, researcher or retail seller of silver. We only take into account the weight of your items and the amount of silver available for recovery. We CANNOT give estimates based on the make, manufacture date, rarity, or collectability of items.