ARG 0.008

[guito13]

Hi,

I came across these items in my grandparents collection. Does anyone know what these markings mean? I cant find them online anywhere other than that ARG may stand for silver in Italian but I am not sure what the rest means.

Thanks!!!

[guito13]

[dognose]

Hi,

Welcome to the Forum.

Please post a much larger close-up of the marks.

Trev.

[guito13]

Thank you, Is this any better?

(Had to link due to size)

[guito13]

Better link:

[Traintime]

Arg itself could be argentine = silver plate, Argentum, argent (pur) = silver. 0.008 could be the amount of allowed impurity in silver used for plating, thus making the silver .992 which is close to the .999 fine amount. I'd guess plate mark with an unreadable makers mark next to that. No idea who would use this system, but sure someone will know.

[amena]

The matter of the word "ARG" has been debated many times in this forums, and, we repeat again, means "argentato" that is, plated.
It is clearly a mark made to deceive.
Marks ARG. 1000, ARG. 900, ARG. 800 are very frequent, while it is the first time I see ARG.0.008, possibly pretending to refer to the thickness of the plating
The intent to deceive is clear, however, because in a cursory reading, you read the figure 800.
However, it is necessary to point out that there are real solid silver cutlery produced between the end of 1800 and early 1900 bearing the mark "argento 800 "
Regards
Amena

[Traintime]

Thanks Amena for the Argentato refresher. As you see in my posting, I also expected Silverplate. I have encountered this mark myself on items of near recent origin. As to the plate thickness question: Raintree has a specifications list showing known thickness standards, but it is not in metric. 0.008 is not within the normal range listed. Again, this is not metric. (Perhaps someone could start a metric conversion chart for this site regarding these thicknesses.) This said, there are examples of purity allowance marks referred to in other questions on this site, though not related to "Arg"entato. If someone has started a new marking system, an allowance of 0.008 impurity to the silver would yield the near pure silver used in plating (here, .992 rather then .999). Given this possibility, i.e. a new clear system of well defined standard, I hesitate to label this as an item meant to deceive. Until we catch someone really passing off fakery, a little respect for manufacturers is called for.
Finally, it's good to know this didn't mean that someone in Argentina was starting their own national system of marking!

[guito13]

Thanks for the replies. I do have an acid testing kit and, based on this information, I am not opposed to testing the items and posting the results.

[amena]

Further to what I said at the end of my post here is an example of a solid silver spoon marked "800 ARGENTO"

[Traintime]

Thanks Amena for photo. We all enjoy "show and tell" time. Sorry I can't add Arg(entpotatoe) marked samples. I smartly hesitated to acquire them due to a bad feeling. You have just added to our knowledge of the "real deal". Any consistency in where on the planet the marked samples all originated or are found.