Back to square 1….Why would the crown be sideways? Why does the crown seem to have pips rather than sections in the lower half? Could it be that this is not a crown at all?
This leads to…
Is that first mark even a crescent, or could it be a partial of something else?
Further,
If a shield contained three letters or objects, might there be a reason to rub out or destroy them while leaving the shield itself in relatively good form? And, could a town mark applied before 1886 be struck out by adding the new crescent/crown next to it.
{The import mark is 1891-1901 era, but the pot could have been made a few years earlier?}
As far as Hanau makers ever using this style of shouldered shield, we have a clean example of one such punch in the upper left corner of an image here (scroll down):
https://www.925-1000.com/forum/viewtopi ... d7#p160564