Help Please:Abalone Ring with Eagle Head & Hecho Mexico

onenorthernlight · Post by **onenorthernlight** » Mon May 26, 2008 7:03 pm

I recently acquired the Ring pictured below but I am confused by the Mark on the back as it doesn't seem to be covered on the Mexican Marks page on this Site.

Thanks in advance for your help in identifying the Maker /Era of this item :-)

(I would post fullsize pictures but can't figure out how, sorry.)

m3krause · Post by **m3krause** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 3:09 pm

I have a bracelet with the same marks. I am looking for info as well.

m3krause · Post by **m3krause** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 11:09 am

I received this email in regard to the maker of my bracelet. I don't know if this person is an expert, but thought I'd share the information.

The eagle head mark is not a maker's mark but an attempt to fake the government assay mark. The real eagle assay mark is a full body.
It's made of Alpaca, an alloy of nickel, copper and zinc, no silver. I have the identical bracelet, but with different stones, sitting on my desk right now, it's marked 925 and sterling but tests as NO silver content. This design is one of several that is often falsely marked for the tourist trade

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Post by **admin** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 12:38 pm

Hi,
Thanks for sharing the email. The reasoning used in it is a bit fuzzy; were a maker to fake a stamp in an attempt to mislead, it would certainly resemble the copied stamp in some way, perhaps it would be cruder, but the general shape and design would be similar.
It is more likely that this "eagle head in profile" stamp is the mark of an unrecorded maker that produced alpacca jewelry.

Regards, Tom

m3krause · Post by **m3krause** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 12:41 pm

Thank you for your response, Tom. I appreciate is so much!

ValkyrieVixen · Post by **ValkyrieVixen** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 7:40 pm

Small world, I'm actually the one who sent that email. I have come across MANY of these with the eagle head (not always the same one) in different styles and none have been sterling even though many are falsely marked as such.

I don't claim to be an expert but I see a lot of Mexican jewelry and there seem to be 3 or 4 bracelet styles that were commonly falsely marked.
The one like in this thread, one that has abalone (usually) or other stone masks, I also have one in Sheen Obsidian, the abalone and enamel floral tension clasp bracelets and the ones that have 4-5 bar links with a pyramid link in between.

There are many more that don't use the eagle head, just 925 or sterling, but every one I have seen with the head and sterling/925 has been fake.

It is my belief that the eagle head stamp is an attempt to fool people into thinking they have an "eagle" marked piece so it is genuine. Lots of alpaca pieces are marked alpaca so the absence of it seems a bit deceptive.

There are also a lot of Mex pieces marked SS that are not sterling, I believe that too is an attempt to deceive, it looks like silver so people assume the SS must mean sterling.

I test ALL my Mexican jewelry now, there are a lot more fakes out there than people are aware of.