@Strato

Well, in that case, maybe theres been so much fake silver there, so it has led to social tensions, and they have started an authentification office for that. Almost unbelievable. Yea, now you only need to authenticate the official in the office - even the office itself. Even in jadeland Ruili, never heard of anything like this before. Anyway, its cool, thanks for the follow up.

There is such a strong culture of faking everything, including silver, that the idea of something being nearly genuine sounds almost unbelievable. But if that really is the case, yea, thumbs up.

Its funny too, all the faking has long historical traditions. You had gutter oil in Qing dynasty already. People in Yunnan knew how to make fake coloured golden bracelets already during Nanzhao kingdom. Many collectors realized plenty historical objects were just coloured on surface. Even museum are mostly displaying fake. If something genuine would enter, it is quickly replaced by a fake, that will be replaced by another fake etc.

Anyway, enough of the story. :)

One more thing:

Strato: "Of course, I can't rule out the possibility that this wealthy silver merchant is somehow in kahoots with the police to sell bogus silver."

This is very organized in the Yunnan tourism industry. And in places like Lijiang, even more. There are comissions after comissions, for tour guides and businesses getting people to buy fake stuff. Its very organized due to the tourism in Yunnan. You have similar stuff for the jade, where some silly "experts" are brought in to authentificate it. Even for Puer tea. But a police doing it, never heard before.

My bet is that a police authentificating the silver is just some bogus thing. Unless you have a local wife who knew exactly what to do. Based on the text, not so.

Anyway a fake silver cup is better than a fake silver and diamond cup.