At the moment, you can buy for about £100 upwards."Unusual and novelty items will always find buyers but, as with all areas of antiques and collectables at the moment, condition is the key factor. "We've got to the stage in the silver market where people are much more choosy about what they buy," says Cook. "More people are asking us to provide condition reports and getting advice as they become more aware of the importance of buying things in good condition. Do your research, and if there's anything wrong with it, like a dent that can't be restored, it will never gain value."While caddy spoons, wine labels and other novelty items such as silver pin-cushions and ink wells have held their own - and indeed increased their values if they are good quality examples - modern designer silver is bringing new collectors into the marketplace.
Several exhibitions have been held and more are planned, which can only increase awareness of this under-valued area.For those who want to invest in silver and don't have the tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds required for top-end antiques, it's an interesting proposition. The more rare the item and the better its condition, the stronger it will be as an investment.. HSBC, the parent company of First Direct, was also affected by a data breach affecting about 180,000 US customers in April.. However, a small number of American Express and Discovery cards are also thought to have been at risk.First Direct said that only a small number of its cardholders were affected, but it wanted to ensure that these customers were fully protected.The incident comes a few months after Citibank admitted that data relating to about 1,000 of its clients had been stolen via one of its call centres in India.
First Direct, the UK telephone and internet bank, is reissuing credit cards to thousands of its customers after fears that they may have been affected by a major security breach at a US card-payments company in May. In a letter to its card customers last week, the company said it was concerned that a number of its clients may have been affected by the breach at the Arizona-based company, Card Systems Solutions. The breach is believed to have put about 40 million cardholders across the globe at risk of fraud. It is thought that several other UK banks may be forced to follow First Direct's lead. CardSystems says it identified the breach at the end of May and reported the incident to the FBI, the US security service. Most of the cards affected were those using the Mastercard system.
