Is this a French hallmark?
Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 7:00 am
by mariok
Hi,
I hope someone can help identify this hallmark. I think it might be Minerva, and so possibly French, but I have a feeling that other countries also used her head. There doesn't seem to be any more marks than these two, which seems odd.
http://imageshack.us/g/707/dsc03067g.jpg/Thanking you in advance
Mario
Re: Is this a French hallmark?
Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 10:40 am
by dognose
Hi Mario,
To me, that looks like a French silverplate maker's mark. The other mark would indicate the amount of silver deposited.
This article is well worth reading:
http://www.925-1000.com/a_platenumbers.htmlTrev.
Re: Is this a French hallmark?
Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 2:37 am
by mariok
Good Morning Trev,
Many thanks for the response. We used to have quite a large collection of napkin rings (mainly British HM), and then last year decided to cut the collection right down to ones we would actually use. My wife favoured this one out of them all, and I did a test on the inner surface and it tested as silver and not plate. You may be right, and the test may have been wrong, if not, what are the alternatives?
All the best
Mario
Re: Is this a French hallmark?
Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 3:43 am
by dognose
Hi Mario,
As for it being French silverplate, this is just my personal opinion, it would be good to read the thoughts of others.
Acid testing is easy and quick, but destructive and often inaccurate. A far better method is the Specific Gravity test, details can be found here:
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=11330&p=25002#p25002Regards Trev.
