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Hi, I'm new here. Been searching online to try to find the answer for this. When my father passed away he gave me a set of six small spoons, they are very old (or that's what I've been told). They each have two marks on the back of them (see photo). I have tried to find any information about them online. Can someone please here help me, and forgive me if I posted this in the wrong section!

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Hi,

Welcome to the Forum.

Sorry if I disappoint you, but your spoons are Soviet, they are made of an alloy of copper, nickel and zinc.

Trev.

Thank you! Just out of curiosity; what does each mark stand for?

The letters MHU (cyrillic letters MNZ) and also called melkhior, is the alloy of which the spoons are made (copper (med in Russian), nickel and zinc). The others marks on the right indicate the set price of the item.

Trev.

Thank you so much! I live in Sweden, and been trying to find any sort of information about the spoons without luck. I know my father had them for a long time, but now I want to find out how he got them in the first place as he wasn't a "big traveller". Guess you can't help me with that? ;)
Do you happen to know if these are spoons that you can find "everywhere"?

We do see them from time to time on the forum.

Trev.

This question pops up rather often, so below an explanation of the whole story:

The letters are Cyrillic МНЦ being an abbreviation of Медь, Никель and Цинк (Latin MNTs for Copper, Nickel and Zinc) . The 8p 00 is the price i.e. 8 Rubles 00 Kopek. In Soviet the price was usually "printed" on the goods in order the prevent "speculations "with it. Below a "translated" extract from a Soviet Encyclopedia:

Meaning of the word "Melchior" in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia: German silver

Melchior (It. Melchior, the distortion of the French. Maillechort, on behalf of France. Inventors of this alloy Maillot and Chorier), copper alloy is mainly nickel (5-30%). German silver
- Single-phase alloy, which is a solid solution; well pressure is processed in the hot and cold state, after annealing has a tensile strength of about 400 MN / m2 (40 kgf / mm2). The most valuable feature Melchior - high resistance to corrosion in air, fresh water and sea water. The increased nickel content as well as iron and manganese additives provide improved corrosion and cavitation resistance, particularly in sea water and water vapor in the atmosphere. MNZhMts 30-0,8-1 alloy (30% Ni, 0,8% Fe, 1% Mn) used in marine shipbuilding, in particular for the manufacture of the condenser tubes. Due nickel Melchior, in contrast to brass and bronze is not yellowish, a silver color that is a combination of high corrosion resistance predestined application MN19 alloy (19% Ni) for the manufacture of glassware, and others. Goods consumer, including checks. Before Melchior called not only to copper-nickel alloys, and alloys of copper with nickel and zinc (nickel silvers) and even silver-plated brass, so products made from these materials are often referred to as German silver.

The underlining is made by me.
The capercailie is a logo of a factory in Leningrad (?), which name I unfortunately cannot recall for the moment.

See:

http://www.925-1000.com/forum/viewtopic ... 46&t=20870
http://www.925-1000.com/forum/viewtopic ... rs#p112590
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_silver

Oel