Bringing old silver to exchange: what to expect

Most Odia homes have a box of old silver somewhere: a broken payal, a child’s bangle, a dented bowl from a wedding. We exchange it for new pieces at the day’s rate, and the process is simple if you know the steps.

Bring everything in a cloth bag and sit at the front counter. Prakash or one of the brothers first separates the pieces by type, because jewellery, utensils and coins are often of different purity. Stones, lac fillings, glass and threads are removed in front of you, since we can only pay for silver.

Each group is weighed on the bench scale facing you, and the weight is written on a slip you keep. We then test a small scraping from each group on a touchstone and with acid, which tells us roughly whether it is 92.5, lower, or fine silver. Old village payals are often 70 to 80% silver, and we tell you the figure plainly.

The value is the fine silver content multiplied by the day’s rate, less a melting loss of about 5 to 8%, which covers what is lost when the metal is refined. A typical exchange of 150 g of old 80% payals gives you credit for about 110 g of fine silver. You can use the credit at once, take time to choose, or ask for a bank transfer at the buyback rate. The whole visit usually takes thirty minutes, and nobody minds if you watch every step.