What is the Composition of EPNS silverware?

A. Hi, Varun. EPNS means electroplated nickel-silver. Nickel silver is also sometimes called german silver. It has nickel and copper in it, and zinc (although zinc can be inappropriate for food service), but no silver in it.

But there is no one single formulation for nickel silver. Sometimes you can tell the nickel percentage from the name of the alloy, though: for example, NS-12 is 12 percent nickel.

Regards,

A. EPNS is a mixture of copper and nickel electronically coated with silver.
Nickel 'silver', German 'Silver', etc., is not plated and is not marked epns. it is a mixture of nickel copper and sometimes other metals, no silver . On the older epns items the plating is thicker. So if it is thickly plated the silver content may be 3% or thereabouts. So a kilo at 3% has 30 grams of silver worth about £24 (June 2025) plus the value of the copper and nickel, approx. £7 a kilo. So it is not worthless in large amounts. Dealers at Kempton Park and other antique fairs pay up to £12 a kilo.

I feel sorry for people trying to find out the value of silver , gold and jewellery in the uk. It's very hit and miss. Find a friendly dealer at an antique fair, treat him fairly and offer to pay a small fee for his help as he or she is not there to provide a free information service. And even then be very careful. Gold , silver and valuable objects often brings the worst out of people; don't be in a rush to sell but don't be rude either, as people need to earn a living. Hope this helps .

A. Unfortunately I have no expertise in antiques or pre-Victorian silver. However, one of our regular responders, Goran Budija, is a metals conservator and he might possibly know. I'll try to alert him to this thread.

Luck & Regards,


Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. Mavis,

You can buy (I forget the name) a silver cleaning kit consisting of a piece of aluminum with 'instructions'.

You could get some flat pieces of aluminum (I'm pretty sure it is aluminum), put them in a bowl with the metal EPNS (knifes & forks, perchance?) touching them. Then get some hot water and add some dollops of sodium bicarbonate (i.e., good old baking soda [in bulk on eBay or Amazon [affil links] ). Leave to 'stew' for a day or so. An electrolytic action will occur and the black, or some of it, will/should disappear.

It does work ... for fine tuning you might have to use some silver polish. Works on pure silver, too!

Cheers!

A. Hi Mrs. Pearce,

The cutlery can certainly be re-plated by most any silver plating shop. But re-plating of old stuff always involves far more labor than is involved in the original mass-production process and you might find it to cost more than you wish to spend. Ask for a couple of quotes.

Luck & Regards,


Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. Hi, Tracey. Millions of people eat with worn silver plated flatware where the underlying nickel-silver is exposed. It might impart a slightly metallic "off" taste, and it doesn't look good, but can't be terribly dangerous. In the case of water being boiled in it, recognize that most hot and cold water pipes are copper, and soldered with tin-lead, and the leaching isn't significant enough to be a health concern for most people.

My take would be if it tastes bad you won't want to make tea with it anyway; and if it doesn't taste bad, I think it's highly unlikely to be a problem.

Regards,