Expert: Martin G Roberts - 12/28/2007

Question
I bought this from the goodwill....it's a
German Pewter Wall Plate-It has the pink handicraft food seal, and it says 95% ZINN.  It also has a handpoured mark of the angel with the balance..only in the other hand is not a sword it's something that I think says "ez r zinn". It's of Nurnberg, Germany. I used an online transelator trying to figure out what "zinn" meant...it said it means tin...but I tried it again and this time it said it meant "pewter".

I was wondering how old it is...and if its worth any money.

Answer
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% marks are always recent - this plate is probably not earlier than about 1960. Zinn is German for tin, and, as in several European languages, also the word for pewter (Dutch "tin"; Swedish "tenn"; French "etain"; etc.). 95% zinn means the pewter alloy comprises 95% tin.

Worth less than 10 dollars.

Martin
www.antique-metalware.co.uk