Hi Larry & All,

Larry asks how you identify junk pewter to melt down in the anteek
shops. Unfortunately, I can tell you more about pewter than you probably
want to know. Jim's answer was a very proper one - buy stuff that has
"Pewter" stamped on the bottom. If it does not have that marking, it's
quite possibly an older and more valuable piece that should be left for
a collector. One of the oddities about pewter is that if it has that
pewter marking, it isn't really (to many people) pewter; it's a
variation called Britannia Metal made in the 1900s vs. earlier than
that. But it will do fine for melt down purposes. Experts disagree to
some extent, but the most common thinking is that "real" pewter is a
mixture of tin and lead. Britannia metal has no lead; it has antimony
instead. Very much like the change made to solder a few years back when
the lead in it was replaced by antimony to avoid lead in the drinking
water from the solder on pipe joints. Instead of melting down old
"pewter", you can simply use solder - essentially the same thing but
maybe mixed to be a bit softer than the "pewter" was.

Best Wishes,
Bob