How to Identify pewter?

[giz189]

How do you know it is pewter? What does it look like? Does it bend? Does it crack like tin sounds when you bend it if it does bend?

[kawalekm]

It is almost always stamped with the word "pewter" somewhere on the bottum of the article.

Alternatively, if it is something obviously meant for consuming food (a beer mug for example) and it is soft enough to bend in your hands, it is pewter. It is illegal to make anything meant to serve food or drink in out of lead.

One other clue I can give you, is if you melt some pewter down into an ingot, it will have a faint golden sheen as compared to a frosty white appearance in lead alloys.

[a.squibload]

This works, after you get it home. Try this on a Zn WW after filing off the coating:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=83978&highlight=zinc+test

I had a small cast item, was painted over an apparently galvanized coating, the paint didn't bubble, the coating did, the cast material didn't. Didn't prove it was pewter but showed it wasn't zinc.

PS: if it's stamped Wilson, or Armetale, it's zinc, not real pewter.
Also pewter won't ring, even in a bell type shape, it will have a dull clank if you thump it with a fingernail.

Plenty more info here, search for pewter.