There are 3 parts to the mark, like on egyptian silver.
The first one on the left says 800 for 80% purity. There are two letters written above this. On egyptian silver the writing above the purity number stands for the location of the assay office. So that could be the case here; but I don't know.
The second mark is a map of Iraq showing the two rivers; the Tigris and the Euphrates. I assume that this would be the guarantee mark, similar to the english Lion or the egyptian cat/lotus flower.
The third symbol on the right shows 'alif', which is the first letter of the arabic alphabet. I would assume that this would be a date letter, like on the egyptian marks.
I would be interested to know if anyone else has ever seen this marking or has any knowledge about it. Also I wonder if there is there any specific research on Iraqi silver.
From what I can gather, the Mandean christian community were famous silversmiths. Most pieces of Iraqi silver are nielloed and show scenes typical of southern mesopotania, such as reeded buildings, boats, palm trees, etc. So I imagine that the centres of production were in the south at places like Basrah and Amarah as well as in other big cities like Baghdad. I don't know what the state of production is at the moment but it is likely to have suffered drastically along with other economic sectors in the last 25 years.
