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Minerva with third tier quality mark and no city mark (sorry for sucky photo, but it is definitely a canted "3"). Maker mark seems to be yet another in a long line of "IW" queries. Additional small mark is impossible to read or photo, and is in a square box with cut corners. Thanks in advance for any help.

Hi,
During a short four- year period (1868-1872) there was no letter for city mark within the mark but struck beside it in a small rectangle.
Later it was struck as a secondary mark beside Diana`s head on finials, legs, handles etc
Cannot decipher the letter within it.
Regards

Thank you. The well formed cartouche shows it was a good strike. Perhaps the letter channels in the die face just were'nt allowing enough metal behind to make well formed characters. Besides the pain of executing an extra stamping, this might be the reason for them dumping the system after only four years. Cutting a wider letter channel into the larger Minerva stamp would surely have simplified the process and left a cleaner mark.

Dear Traintime! I think, you mixed up the Minerva head with the Diana head. Minerva head is a French hallmark, Diana is the Austro-Hungarian.
We have to know, what character in the small punch. That tells us, where the spoon made.
Best regards!
KRisztián

Sorry K, that's what happens when you concentrate on some other puzzle and let the part of your brain controlling your fingers work on auto-pilot...you fly smack into a mountainside! It's doubtful we'll ever get a clear reading of the city mark...under 10x magnification it looks like the metal collapsed in on itself or was crushed/marred. I guess only the nuances of the maker's mark could be a clue if they someday match up to another known sample.