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rehannar
Joined: 01 Aug 2008
Posts: 2
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Posted: 01/08/2008
Post subject: silver hallmarked box American?? |
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Hi i have a silver box with symbol followed by initals E.H STG Silver and the word BRITANNIC just wondering when this was made, by whom and its value I've attached 3 photos. Thanks for all your help
Kind regards Rehannar
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uncle vic
Moderator
Joined: 25 Sep 2006
Posts: 411
Location: Baton Rouge, LA USA
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Posted: 03/08/2008
Post subject: re: silver hallmarked box American?? |
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Thanks for joining us here. This is a tough one....."britannic" usually denotes .950 silver vs. "sterling" or .925. I don't find the mark in my American books. How about it, silver people....any ideas?
Uncle Vic
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Hose_dk
Joined: 23 Mar 2008
Posts: 132
Location: Denmark
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Posted: 03/08/2008
Post subject: re: silver hallmarked box American?? |
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Brittania metal is sopposed to look like silver - but has nothing to do with silver.
Brittania standard is 950 silver.
My best guess is that yours is the first - always when marks look like silvermarks - it is not silver. marks are sopposed to make people believ that they have bought silver when they have not.
And your piece do not have the brittania mark.
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rehannar
Joined: 01 Aug 2008
Posts: 2
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Posted: 04/08/2008
Post subject: re: silver hallmarked box American?? |
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Thanks for your help Vic and Hose, well i ran up against the same obsticles when trying to find out more with regards to this box.
It is silver it was vert tranished when we first got it and it is a cigar box, very unusal that the STG for sterling is abrreviated and it all doesnt really add up, but Hose, just wondering how if "Brittania" or maybe Britannic silver being .950 or higher is by your remarks not siver.
i know the english assay system and sterling .925 is the best beacause you know what you are getting. Is that what you meant???
Well I hope someone may be able to help more and i look forward to reading more replies.
P.S it is very difficult to trace american silversmiths, that is part of the problem. I think this may be American and would love to know if others agree or disagree.
Thanks
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Hose_dk
Joined: 23 Mar 2008
Posts: 132
Location: Denmark
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Posted: 04/08/2008
Post subject: re: silver hallmarked box American?? |
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Brittania metal is another material - not silver but a metal made by other materials.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britannia_metal
here you can also read about German silver - also a "silver looka alike"
So I was talking about to different materials - the 950 silver and the "look alike"
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uncle vic
Moderator
Joined: 25 Sep 2006
Posts: 411
Location: Baton Rouge, LA USA
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Posted: 04/08/2008
Post subject: re: silver hallmarked box American?? |
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If you Google the word "britannic" it comes up as 95% silver or .950. Totally different from the britannia metal, which is not silver.
I have never seen the word "britannic" on American silver, but of course none of us have seen it all. One question I have is how the marks are applied. From the photos it appears that the marks may be raised, i.e. cast into the box, rather than punched into the metal. If they are raised, that's a clue that it may be silverplated as most silverplated items have the marks cast into the base metal before the silverplating is applied.
Regards,
Uncle Vic
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