Is this a French hallmark?

[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

[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.html

Trev.

[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

[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#p25002

Regards Trev.