hello, I would be grateful for any infomation about these hallmarks. I have tried to load an image but there is a pixel difference so this cannot be done , I will describe it as best i can . BAO in a rectangle …925 in an oval…a triangle in a circle… capital letter fancy A in a square… and the words sterling silver. I have spent hours looking on internet sites and cannot find the source of these marks so I will be very grateful for your experise and time if you could help me. thank you in advance.
Bez - thanks for joining us here on silver-collector. I sketched out your description of the marks and cannot find anything close. I suspect it is American, north, central, or south. You may email me the image direct, royvictor@cox.net.
Let’s start by what it is not: not English, since the Brits have a special (and simple) system that never uses the “925” or the words “sterling silver”. Probably not Continential, since most of that is 800, 833, 835 or 900 (plus a good bit of old French 950) purity, not 925. The words “sterling silver” denote an American origin. I’d like to see the image to see how new & crisp the marks are, and how they are arranged. There is a fair amount of very modern Italian silver floating around with “sterling silver” on it and “925” as well, some I’ve seen with other marks that make no sense, probably intended to imitate English marks to some extent. Likewise there is a good bit of very new Middle Eastern silver around with such marks.
Also it would be helpful if you share with us the history of the item - where it was purchased, how long you have owned it, etc.
Just pure fun detective work. Keeps some of us occupied in our old age…
Uncle Vic