www.925-1000.com

Hi All, can anyone give me more information about this spoon? I presume it is from Denmark as the bowl is formed from a Danish 4 Mark coin of 1681. It is hallmarked to the back of the stem 826 (silver standard?) and a F in a circular stamp. It is 13cm long.
Many thanks
John

There appears to be some additional tiny detail (letters/numbers?) in the lower right that might begin with a "W". Can you see anything there?

Yes, I see what you mean. I have looked at it under a strong magnifier but unfortunately, it does not reveal anything.
Many thanks
John

in my opinion its from norway approx 1880-1920

826 s
+ the pattern cry norway.

We dont tak value at this page. But as a curiosum, the coin - in case that it was not made into a spoon would (in this quality) have a collector value. Catalog value of 300 EURO. Many coins was around 1900 put into silver items. They used these very big old silver coins. It was fascion to have made items like this. The coins later had a much grater value. Today it is destroyed and value is the silver value only.
Again nobody collects coin anymore so the catalog value is no longer relevant. But in the 1950 - 60 - 1970ties when we collected coins, the coin value was many many time the silver value. So fascion changes during time, they had no problem using these coins in newley made beakers, spoons, ash trays, juvellery etc thereby destroying its for a coin collector.

Thank you Hose. Interesting comments on the coin. I had not considered its value (or non-value!!), but it is nevertheless a nice looking and quite large and heavy coin.
Regarding the spoon, I have found a letter F in Boje's book on Danish Silver marks, for assay master Jacob Fabricius dating 1827 - 1831. This mark is very similar to the F mark on my spoon. My personal view is that the spoon is later than this and I agree with your estimate 1880 - 1920. However, I have another Danish spoon that also looks to date from around 1900 that actually dates to 1840, so could possibly date from around 1830 ? See attached photo.
John

Hi,
Danish assayer Fabricius is well known and his F mark is easily recognized.On the other hand,Denmark has well established and consistent hallmarking system, including zodiac signs for months when an item was made,town marks etc.
In short,it is very unlikely to have only assayer's mark without additional Danish marks, in spite of the Danish coin being used for the spoon.
Regards

1. the F guardein was not a silversmith
2. silver content i Denmark 830 - 826 norwegian standard
3. 13,5 danish standard i 1840ties Norwegian 13,1/3

4. the standard was in lod = 16/16 was pure silver the 1000/1000 standard is around 1900

so - no way that your spoon is that old

Good afternoon Jose and AG
Thank you very much for your comments. I agree with Jose that the spoon is more likely to date from around 1900 rather than 1830. The design of the spoon looks like 1900 to me and I have had a number of spoons in the past that have had bowls made from old coins and they have all dated from around 1900 (mainly Papal and Maltese, made and sold as souvenirs). So we have a spoon with a Norwegian pattern stem with a bowl formed from an old Danish coin. The stamped F is unlikely to be the assay master's mark and the stamped 826 being the silver standard. My understanding is that the 826 standard has been the minimum standard for Danish silver for a very long period. It is also my understanding that in 1891 the minimum Norwegian standard became 830. If this is correct then in my opinion the spoon would more likely be Danish than Norwegian. But this is my opinion which could well be wrong. Could it come from somewhere else??
Many thanks again.
John

Apologies, Hose. I spelled your name incorrectly!
John