Mexico Sterling marks

About Mexican sterling marks

The resulting jewellery ranges from sculptural bracelets and necklaces to brooches, earrings and stone-set designs. Workshops also made flatware, hollowware and mixed-metal objects. Spratling’s WS, Héctor Aguilar’s HA, Los Castillo, Antonio Pineda and Victoria are separate identities. Their designs and metal choices overlap, so a familiar Taxco style needs to be read with its own signature.

Fineness is another part of the stamp group. 925 means 925 parts silver per thousand; 940, 950, 970 and 980 express other silver contents. Those figures do not name a maker. Numbered eagle stamps were introduced in 1948 and were followed around 1979–1980 by letter-and-number registrations. In a code such as TM-90, the first letter identifies the registration town, the second a name initial, and the number distinguishes the registrant.

Read every punch, including faint emblems and separate numerals. A design number, eagle number and registration number serve different purposes. None should be converted into a production year without its corresponding chronology.

How to read the marks

Look on the reverse of a brooch, inside a bracelet or ring, or beside the clasp; photograph the complete group.

Transcribe the name or monogram separately from TAXCO, MEXICO and the fineness.

For an eagle stamp, copy both its shape and internal number; do not identify a workshop from an unclear eagle alone.

For letter-and-number registrations, keep the exact letters, hyphen and digits. T identifies Taxco registration, not a production year.

Compare the maker’s signature and metal wording together; a named workshop can produce silverplate or mixed-metal objects as well as sterling.

Treat separate style or design numbers as model identifiers unless a maker-specific record gives another meaning.