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If rustling up a few extra dollars is on your agenda, make sure to rummage around in your kitchen, sitting room and even loft for silver items that may be worth more than you realise.

Often given as wedding gifts or collected as decorative items such as a candelabras, trays and tea-sets, sterling silver items can often be found in many a household. Many times you may have simply stored it away so as not to damage it.

Given silver's skyrocketing performance in the past few years, now is a great opportunity to cash in. As of late 2011, silver has climbed to be worth over $30/ ounce so a couple of silver candlesticks may be worth a lot more than you expect.

However, before you take out the scales and start throwing all your silver onto it, bear in mind that the spot silver price quote is for pure silver only. This means you will need to identify the purity of your silver first. But don't worry, this should be easier than you think. All you need to do is look for hallmarks on the utensils that indicate its purity.

Britannia silver for example is somewhat uncommon nowadays but is indicated by what appears to be a seated regal figure or a mark that says 'Britannia' or even 958 which is a direct reference to its 95.8% purity.

Thus, if you weigh up a collection of Britannia silver items and it comes to 10 troy ounces, what you have in hand is actually 9.58 troy ounces of pure silver. Using a price example of $30 per troy ounce, this calculates to $30 * 9.58oz = $287.4.

If you are lucky, you may find the number 999 printed on your silver items. 999 indicates that the item is pure 99.9% silver, represents the genuine article and is literally worth its weight in silver.

If you do not find any hallmarks whatsoever, most likely the item in question is not silver or perhaps may be silver plated only. If you believe it to be silver you will have to take it to a bullion dealer to have it assayed.

So now that you've accumulated your treasure trove, what next? Well you need to hunt out a scrap silver dealer that gives you the best rate. You can look in your local area or search out options online. Just make sure that before you sign on the dotted line, you check how much silver is worth in order to know whether you are getting a good deal or not.