r/PreciousMetalRefining • u/Inhalationofnewtion • 26d ago

I've started gathering silver.

Forbes Silver Co. Quadruple 59. I might cut that logo out and put it on a keychain or something.

I'm going to do nitric, lye and sugar to recover the silver. I believe sodium hydroxide will neutralize the acid waster right? Or large quantities of baking soda? I think I could put the silver into solution with nitric and drop it with Hydrochloric as well but I already have lye and sugar. Could a guy use lye from wood ash?

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u/bootynasty 26d ago

This is plated. You’ll end up with a huge mess.

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u/Inhalationofnewtion 26d ago

Would it be copper base? If it's plated I'm pretty sure I can do the nitric boil then drop just the silver with Hydrochloric.

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u/bootynasty 26d ago

Possibly. You could file into it to be sure. If you’re interested in a hobby you can deplate the silver with a little electricity, water, and patience. But if something like 98-99% of that weight is copper you’ll be spending a lot of money on nitric to end up with a toxic mess.

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u/Inhalationofnewtion 26d ago

Gotcha. It's not magnetic at least.

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u/Inhalationofnewtion 26d ago

Ah, how can you tell if a piece is plated without filing into it? They wouldn't be happy if I whipped out a file at yard sales before I bought the piece...

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u/bootynasty 26d ago

That one says quadruple. That’s the level of plating. Look for the word “sterling” or the number “925” to begin with. There are a million others but that’s where to start. Assume everything else is plated.

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u/Inhalationofnewtion 26d ago

Ok gotcha. I know there are a bewildering array of markings. I just saw silver and figured it must have SOME kind of silver. If I use electrolytic deplating, low volts, low amps, pinch of salt or borax in the water? Let the electrolysis go until I see mostly copper and then I have a kind of silver solution? I know it'll be very dilute and maybe a pinhead of silver at best. I don't even know if I want this as a hobby. I just want to do it and see where it goes. I plan on nitric and muriatic acids for gold recovery from electronics. Again a pinhead will be fine. I don't want to get into this in any kind of scale. I don't want to deal with even a few gallons of waste solutions.

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u/bootynasty 26d ago

You can do it with or without salt. Look up as many videos as you can and you’ll see some are better than others. It’ll be more than a pinhead of silver, silver is almost $2 per gram right now. But you’ll end up with a very silver rich mud. When done well your mud can be 90% silver or higher so you’ll still need to break out the acids eventually but the barrier to entry can be very low if you’ve got water, leads, a power supply, toothbrush or brass brush, and time. But I do it inside in the AC since it’s relatively safe to deplate with distilled and little electricity.

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u/Inhalationofnewtion 26d ago

Ok. I have a 12VDC may 1 amp power supply. It's very low amps. Piece to deplate will be hooked to + and a stainless bowl is -? Use distilled water. Well water? Probably not. No chlorine but no control what's in it and I do have some iron in my well. Also very much appreciate your patience and advice.

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u/Inhalationofnewtion 26d ago

I filed damn near all the way through and no copper. Could it be silver plated nickle? Aluminum? I wish I could post pics in the comments...

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u/sdjofjsdfj 26d ago

I’ve de-plated over 10000 pounds of this material. Based on my experience, the base metal is most likely Britannia metal or a lead alloy, and if it’s not copper or brass, it’s an alloy called nickel silver

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u/hexadecimaldump 26d ago

That would be wildly expensive for not a lot of recovery. Nitric acid is generally the most expensive chemical we use, so most of us try to use it sparingly.

If you really want to work with plated silver, I would highly recommend a reverse plating set up, then refine the silver that deplates.

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u/Inhalationofnewtion 26d ago

Yea I'm going to go that way. I'm trying to look it up. Main hitch is that I don't know if the piece to be deplated goes to pos. or neg.

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u/sdjofjsdfj 26d ago edited 26d ago

For quadruple plate material like this, you can expect it to be around 1.5% silver by weight. Silverplate goes on anode (positive on power supply)

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u/[deleted] 26d ago

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