Dear Dave, as to your statement,"An Item for thought: Much has been made in this thread of the existing laws in Germany and their impact on hallmarks. There were also laws against most things done regularly by the government of the day. miss-use of hallmarks pales by comparison to most others." In Great Britain, this missuse is taken extreemly seriously. Under the law, this is classed as Treason. I am sure this is not wasted on you. The penalty is death, or inc****ration at the Tower. The latter being the more appropreat. I have a fine Victorian laddel. Been in the Family some 140 years. It has a very interesting mark, an incused Beaver. I took it to be valued and the mark explained. I found that I was in serrious trouble if I sent this to the Assay office. It was a fraudulent mark, circa 1880, that was giving the impression that it was Canadian silver!
In your country, the selling and making of the Medal of Honour is regerously prosecuted. Might I paraphrase you and state, there were also laws against most things done regularly by the government of the day. miss-use of medals pales by comparison to most others.So the US authorities will do nothing.
But back to the marking, trade mark infringement is concidered a great crime, hence Mac Donald Tous R Us fight court cases, and provale. Germany in the Nazi perriod was no different. I have two items produced by the Garr firm for the SS, one in white metal has the mark incorporated, the second produced in silver has the same mark stamped in and the 800 clearly stamped.
The Honour Goblet like wise is marked, and marked clearly with the silver mark, these are not sloppy or cast into the piece.
The main point is, these marks are sperious. This dose not make the dagger a fake, but it dose show that the piece has been altered by their addition.
