Hallmark on the umbrella handle

Hi, I’m new to your community. So please don’t judge me too harshly. I bought an umbrella with a silver handle. I have studied a little bit about silver hallmarks, but I have not seen such a hallmark before. Please help me with identification. Thank you!


I believe that’s the hallmark for London, 1906:

London date letter L

Yes, it is quite similar. I’m assuming that the leopard’s image has been erased. But I wasn’t familiar with the numbering. Thank you!

Yes, the hallmark has been rubbed. Years of polishing will do that - silver isn’t indestructible!

That’s a lower-case “l,” not the number “one.” The images on the linked page make it even clearer. Click the date for the 1906 mark to see a couple of examples. The first example is spot on.

Thank you. But I don’t quite understand your point about the number 1. Perhaps the translation is difficult because English is not my first language. As far as I can see, the number 1 is quite clear and hard to confuse with the letter L

UK hallmarks do not use numbers. They use only letters. Here is the image from the site I linked to, above. It’s the letter “el.”

1906

Oh, I get it. Interesting and new information for me

Remember that typography changes over the centuries. To us, that looks like the number “one,” but to someone in the late 19th Century, it probably didn’t. For most of us, for example, the elaborate gothic lettering of some of the date letter series are almost totally unreadable. eek

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Thank you very much for your detailed and informative answer.