These results shed new light on the debate on metal luminescence. On the one hand, because the emission involves a real state, we can exclude the involvement of electronic Raman scattering with a high degree of certainty. Moreover, Auger-excited interband emission was introduced as efficient process for generating metal photoluminescence. Finally, in the investigated samples, the Auger excitation process is more efficient than intraband absorption for the excitation of energetic electrons. This has the potential to become new tool in plasmon-driven chemistry, although it is not certain that these results can be generalized.