Help With Silverplate Hallmark Identification

Maker's mark yes.
Not a solid sterling silver hallmark.

Some early American silver can bring astronomical prices at auction, relative to contemporary British silver.

I'm assuming "200 1/2 10" represents the silver content in some way, but I also can't find anything on that particular mark either. My guess would be it's a fancy way of saying 25% silver.

Alright after that previous comment from spruett, let me stop for a second and make it abundantly clear that I'm aware that silverplate is not sterling silver, that it does not constitute high value in and of itself and that my plate is most likely garbage. I regret giving my interpretation of the numbers because it was based on poor research.

Going forward, If you have credible and verifiable information regarding who the maker is/was or what the numbers mean I would appreciate it. Thank you, that's all.

I know zip about hallmarks but this one appears to me to be a fancy T&C.

What is the item it's on?

Yeah, good call, I don't know why I didn't take full pictures in the first place.

Actually exactly the opposite is true...

What is Quadruple plate? Quadruple silver plate items are NOT plated four times, they simply were plated with four times as much pure silver, known in the industry as .925, as any other hollowware item. Quadruple silver plate hollowware was some of the highest quality made during the later part of the 19th century.

This item does not appear to be hollowware, generally things more ornamental like candle sticks and spoons/ladles, etc. Sometimes filled with a hard wax. I used to have to break these items up during the silver boom in 1979, at the coin shop I worked at, hard tough work using tin snips and a hammer to get all the wax out for an accurate weight of the silver.

Silverplate is the common term for electroplating and can be done on copper, nickel silver (sometimes called "German silver"), white metal, or other base element. It is a machine process and contains minimal silver (not enough to scrape off or melt away). Even if a piece is marked "Quadruple" plate, it has only .0012 inch thickness of silver applied to the base metal, not sufficiently different from "Standard plate"-which has a thickness of only .0003 inches. The back of this plate has some fairly deep scratches in it as well, so I'm thinking the base metal is white and not a brass, otherwise we would see a different color in the deep crevice of the scratches, the plating could have been done after the engraving so they may not show the base metal. Would be interesting to have an XFR done on it to see it's total composition.


These marks also do NOT appear to be actual Hallmarks,
but simply an engravers mark. Only the Quadruple plate 200 1/2 - 10 do appear to be from stamps.

I think the look of the plate is more modern, but can't find anything on it either, possibly a generic quadruple plate platter that has been engraved by a local jeweler?

Wish I could help more, I love a good mystery and tracking down answers, but so far I am also coming up blank.

Yes any plated precious metal is only worth a very intrinsic amount, but the real interesting thing is the engravers marks, are they old? I can see a similar look to many love tokens from around the early 1900's here. Maybe a close up photo could tell if this was engraved by hand or with an engraving tool? Looks to be handmade to me.