Good day, fellow collectors. I have acquired a so-called Armada dish measuring 82 mm across. It weighs 46 g and might have been used as perhaps a spice dish or something like that. It has three hallmarks besides the maker’s mark RC (with dot in the shield below): lion passant, leopard’s head and year letter “e” for 1960. I believe the double thread pattern running all along the perimeter as well as the protruding dent in the floor of the dish are characteristic of the original set of Armada dishes that are currently in the British Museum.
I do not recall ever seeing a post in this forum dealing with this type of silver hollowware. Phil, do you and others reckon my dish could be a bit of a rarity?
Regards
Jan
If you go to eBay and search for silver armada dish, you’ll find these in large numbers, in a variety of sizes, and from many different silversmiths, all late 20th Century. If you look only at the “sold” listings," you’ll find that, in excellent condition, they generally sell for something less than twice their melt value. I even spotted one case in which a large one was sold for less than its scrap value, apparently by a seller who didn’t know how to look up the spot price of silver. 
So, a rarity? No, not really. Valuable? Yes, worth at least its weight in silver. 
Bartholomew and Jeff, thank you for your kind replies. Of course, behind the less spectacular history of these reproduced dishes looms the gripping story of the originals. Anyone on the forum owning one of the reproductions would do well (if they did not know of the originals) to do the required reading!
Thank you
Jan
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