Help Please with a Mexican mark

Japerton · Post by **Japerton** » Sun Nov 27, 2005 8:18 pm

Hello,
I am not able to find any information on the 925-1000.com site.

The mark is Mexico on one side and TV-6? or TV-B? on the other.

I would be grateful for any help!

Thank you!

Post by **admin** » Sun Nov 27, 2005 9:22 pm

see ->
http://www.925-1000.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=635" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Japerton · Post by **Japerton** » Mon Nov 28, 2005 3:38 am

Ooops, thanks.

So, the V in TV means taxco and some city?

Is there a book title I should be looking for at the library?

Thank you so much.

Post by **admin** » Mon Nov 28, 2005 12:40 pm

Not exactly. This letter/number sterling marking code began in Mexico in the late 1970's. Finding a piece using the code tells you, right off, it is of recent vintage.
The first letter indicates location, and there are few in use, those most commonly seen are: C, G, J, M, & T.
C&J you can guess at with a map, G is probably Guadalajara, M is Mexico City and in your case...
the T is for Taxco, the V is the initial of the last name of the smith (Vazquez, Vargas, Villalobos, who knows?, let's invent one named - Jose Vargas), the number (can't read it, but let's say it's 39) indicates that he is the 39th smith who's name began with V to register with the assay office of the city of Taxco. so...
TV-39 = Jose Vargas of Taxco...
and now we have key the code...
but...unfortunately...no codebook!
Somewhere in the bureaucracy of the Mexican government, the codebook exists, but as far as I know, no one, aside from the bureaucrats, has ever seen it. So, for now, you'll have to settle for "they are sterling and were made by a guy named V?? in Taxco sometime after around 1980"
Sadly, that's how things stand with the current Mexican silver marking system, sorry I can't be of more help.
Regards, Tom

ps. Bille Hougarts book "The Little Book of Mexican Silver Trade & Hallmarks" does decode around 40 of these marks, however, there are many hundreds, if not thousands of them. It is likely that the vast majority will remain unidentified.

Japerton · Post by **Japerton** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 2:54 am

Thank you so much!

silvercrown · Post by **silvercrown** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 11:17 am

"J" is Jalisco and "C" is Ciudad.

Silvercrown

Post by **admin** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 5:25 pm

Jalisco makes sense for J, but "ciudad" is simply Spanish for "city". Think it is more likely to stand for Cuernavaca.