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I hope this post is not off topic — if you find it interesting many would certainly appreciate to learn.
Parcel gilt silver; gilding gets rubbed off after years of cleaning, unless sealed in oxygen free environment, which is virtually impossible. But I have noticed something: gilding remained within depressions in the marks, as shown here,possibly in other less exposed places, too. Is it important when evaluating fakes? At least contemporary or recent ones; one would not go that far to make a parcel guilt fake and rub off gilding on purpose. But how old are the first recorded fakes in your experience or what you have seen? I always found remnants of gilding important, but I may be wrong if there are hundred years old fakes. When did it actually start? I mean extensive faking Russian silver; I do remember Augsburg and Paris XVIII century fakes about 30 years ago; not familiar with Russian fakes at the time, possibly less lucrative then.Although, I saw the first attempts by Rumanian and Bulgarian mark fakers; not very dangerous, mostly struck on existing Austrian,German and Far East silver.They were more interested in ancient Rome artifacts and coins (notorious ``Bulgarische Falschungen`` reaching mostly Germany) and French art glass — E.Gale and Almeric Walter pate de verre (Romania), reaching as far as USA.The first enameled fakes with better punches came from Poland - triptychon pendants.This is what I can tell.Then, all of a sudden, there is a plethora of ``Russian``silver. On the other hand, what I have seen kindly posted here by members who did serious research there were much more dangerous punches. Another point:it is not easy to remove genuine marks deeply struck and then apply Russian marks, and over-struck marks are easy to detect.There is not much European unmarked silver to use for the purpose of adding Russian marks.
Thank you for any comment if you find it worth discussing;my knowledge is limited mostly to craftsmanship (difficult without having silver in my hands to judge).

Hi AG2012 -

My attitude towards fakes is well known - we should not discuss them in the forum!
The first fakes started shortly after the Revolution (Mr. Hammer) and continued until today in increasing quality and quantity.
The only protection against fraud is knowledge and experience.
That's the big advantage of this forum: there are members of outstanding theoretical knowledge (regulations, rules) and members who have large collections (authentic objects)of different Russian silver. Then there are members who are familiar with silver-and -goldsmithing...etc., etc.
If all work together, the results in detecting fakes will be impressive!

Regards
Zolotnik