Mystery Object with Mystery Mark 830S

[silvercrown]

I acquired this little 830S silver piece in a box lot at an auction. The maker's mark is FKS, with the K being dominant. The design, in case it is not clear, is two holly leaves and a holly berry. The piece is 2 3/4" long. Does anyone recognize the mark? Thanks, as always.

[eldarinn]

but 830 purity is widely common in Scandinavia, so I would check in Danish/Norwegian manufacturers. Good luck !

[silvercrown]

Hi, I appreciate your response. I have checked all the Scandinavian resources with no luck. Silvercrown

[marabod]

I think long ago I had contemporary Norwegian spoons with this mark. 830s it was, probably 83%, they were going green, not sterling.

[Hose_dk]

We do use sterling very much. The standard 800, 830 or similar are corresponding to a tradition - a long tradition.
Up untill 1893 we calculated silver in 16 lod (parts). Silver was 13½ lod and 13½ lod was standard (in Denmark) from 1608.
13½ was corresponding to the silver coins.
Silver items was considered savings.

[kerangoumar]

Hose wrote

Silver items was considered savings.

are there any figures on the amount of silver that was melted down at various crisis times? - war, recession etc.
I'd be interested to hear about this for denmark or any other country, perhaps as another thread.

[Hose_dk]

No not to my knowledge.
As we all know coins was also used for making silver items. Melted down or used as ornaments.
A special small laddle (I dont know the prober word) was also made from a large coin. The smith hammered the coin to a "cup" they can be identified by the fact that he did not totch the edge of the coin. I have seen a piece made first half 1800 - they used the very large 1600/1700 coins made in Denmark.

The reason for the 1608 law was that the crown should be able to use the siver without testing. They could use the "raw material" directly. Therefor use of 11 lod 11½ lod etc was ponished hard. During the regression in early 1800 coins was isued down to 6 lod - I have a "silver" coin from 1808 named "offermark" - actually its more cobber than silver. it was isued after the english had introduced the bomming of civillians in war 1807 (200 years aniversery last week). And stolen the danish fleet - Denmark was neutral in the Napoleon wars but the english did want the vessel to use in the war against Napoleon. That was the worlds first terror attack towards civilians.
But now we are definetly mooving away from the purpose of the silver debat. Sorry

[kerangoumar]

Q: is that actually an F or do you think it could be a J?? Reason being that Europeans put a stroke thru the vertical.