The scarcity and cost of silver excluded many people from owning and using silver items until Thomas Boulsover of Sheffield, England, invented a new process of plating items with a layer of silver in 1742. The method involved using heat to fuse a copper ingot inside thinner top and bottom layers of silver. Silversmiths then worked the fused metal by hammering it or rolling it into sheets to create objects. The English called the process Sheffield plating after its city of origin.

Sheffield plating produced beautiful and durable items with a thick layer of silver plating, but the process involved handwork by skilled craftsmen. In the 19th century, inventors in England and France created techniques for electroplating silver. In the 1830s, George Richard Elkington and his brother Henry Elkington in England invented one method, while the Christofle Company in France invented another in the 1840s. Though the processes varied slightly, both used electricity to deposit silver onto a metal base rather than fusing metal layers.

Manufacturers in England often used copper as a base metal from 1840 through 1875. The French preferred using white-toned base metals rather than reddish copper, as the color of the base metal could bleed through thin plating. Eventually, manufacturers used an electroplated nickel silver (EPNS) alloy as the base metal. It was a white material combining copper, zinc, and nickel. The base metals still varied, sometimes even within a single piece, to add strength to a particular part of the structure of the silver-plated item.

American manufacturers quickly adopted electroplating. In the Victorian era, manufacturers followed specific standards of marking silver plating to indicate the amount of silver deposited on the ware. In 1906, the federal government enacted the National Stamping Law, which specified that silver-plated items could not be marked "coin" or "sterling."

Early pieces of Sheffield Plate bore impressed marks resembling sterling silver hallmarks, but a lawsuit filed by London silversmiths in 1773 forced Sheffield platers to change them slightly. In addition to the markings, collectors can examine items for the telltale rolled edge seam of Sheffield Plate. Electroplated silver items typically have a higher shine than Sheffield silver-plated works.

Many silver-plated household items are marked with the manufacturer's name, but not all. Some common electroplated silver marks include "EP" for electroplated, "EPNS" for electroplated nickel silver, and "Silver on Copper."

Furthermore, manufacturers have indicated the grade of silver plating by marking items according to a scale. Countries vary in these markings and their meanings. In America, markings of increasing quality are "A1" or "Standard," "A1X," "AA," "XX" or "Double," "XXX" or "Triple," "XXXX" or "Quadruple," and "F.S.B." for Federal Specifications Board. In contrast, "A1" on British silver-plated items indicates the highest grade. Collectors can pair these markings with country-specific hallmarks to determine the silver plating's quality. A detailed, reliable provenance can aid in the authentication.

To learn more about Silver Plated Metals, read our related Dictionary pages.