Silver plate versus EPNS.

[Vimto]

I have recently bought a sauce bottle holder that the seller described as "silver plated". When I received it it had EPNS stamped on the bottom. This I know stands for electro plated nickel silver and I know that it contains no silver whilst silver plated items are coated with a thin layer of actual silver. Depending on the thickness of this coating depends the quality or put another way the thicker the coating the better the quality. Can anyone please verify my thoughts or refute them or give any additinal information to persuade the seller the error he has made.

[Sandy-Wroe]

I would have thought that EPNS and 'silver plated' were the same.

[wildwood]

Most metals such as brass can not be silver plated straight away. A coat of nickel is first needed so the silver coat has something to adhere to. LIke Sandy, I always thought that the whole process of EPNS included the final silver plating.

[chakka35]

Old Sheffield Plate had the silver deposited on copper. EPNS, as the others have said, has the silver deposited on a layer of nickel. So to say that EPNS 'contains no silver' is not correct.

[ChuckFickens]

in EPNS the bass metal is Nickel Silver which is then electroplated with Silver.

[rojash]

According to every source I can find, Chuck's answer is the only correct one. i.e. it is silver plated onto nickel silver, not onto nickel and not onto a coating of nickel. Nickel silver is a metal alloy of copper with nickel and often but not always zinc.

[wildwood]

It looks like all answers are wrong. Rung a fried of a friend who is an electroplater and his reply was as you thought. EPNS stands for ElectroplatedNickelSilver which does not involve actual silver. It merely means that the nickel alloy coating looks like silver.

[rojash]

Well done, wildwood and EDDIE51. You've both managed to simply repeat my answer. Wildwood even managed to repeat my answer and simultaneously claim that it was wrong!

[fredpuli47]

Well. if EPNS on an item means its plated with something other than silver, I'll be first in the queue to sue . or report to Trading Standards, Harrods, all the London auction houses, the London Silver Vaults' traders and many others.LOL It's been a standard trade term, and mark, for a silver plated item for as long as I can remember, and certainly as long as I've been buying silver and plate.
Nickel silver is 'German silver' and, as said,contains no silver itself. It's chosen as the base metal alloy for silver plating because it doesn't bleed (show a reddish colour ) when the plating wears off through constant polishing. The old metal used would show through as red,hence the term 'bleed'.

[Bert]

Strictly speaking (and I have this from an Assay Office), silver plate means solid silver (not pure silver, but one of the standard alloys of silver which come in various degrees of fineness, similar to 9 carat, 14 carat and 18 carat gold). This should be carefully distinguished from "silver plated", but, unfortunately, it frequently isn't. here's the quote from the Assay Office (Birmingham):
You are quite right that the term 'plate' is the traditional and correct word for solid precious metal; in the past, used more to refer to silver, but more recently to all precious metals. 'Plated', therefore, refers strictly to articles of base metal constitution with a thin covering of precious metal.

[wildwood]

Rojash, why don't you read things before you get on your high horse.

"Chuck's answer is the only correct one. i.e. it is silver plated onto nickel silver," is not correct.

[rojash]

Sorry wildwood, but chucks answer is correct. EPNS is silver plated onto nickel silver. It's true that nickel silver contains no silver - but EPNS is real silver, plated onto nickel silver