I was wondering if anyone could help me to decipher the symbols on this silver butter knife.
The knife is part of a set of six that
I inherited from my grandmother when she passed away some forty years ago.
My grandmother was a British citizen but lived in San Francisco for over twenty years before returning to the UK sometime in the 1940s.
She was also widely traveled so I´m unsure as to which country they were made.
I would be most grateful if somebody could shed some light on this for me.
Many thanks,
Richard
Unfortunately I have to tell you that this is not silver. The letters are EPNS which stands for electroplated nickel silver. The butter knife blades are therefore made of a base metal alloy (nickel silver), which contains no silver whatsoever, with a microscopically thin layer of pure silver on the surface. The abbreviation is a generic one used by many manufacturers, mainly in English-speaking countries, so it is not possible to assign either origin or date.
Phil
Thanks a lot for your expert advice Phil, you certainly know your stuff! - I was just curious after finding them in my attic where they´d been sitting in a presentation box for years and wondered if they were antique or not.
Now I know and thanks again 
