800 and 830 Continental Silver Marks Marks: How to Identify and Date Them

A numeral '800' (or '830'/'835') struck into the piece indicating parts-per-thousand silver purity; German pieces from the Imperial period typically also carry a small crescent moon and an arched imperial crown alongside the number.

• 1884 (enacted) / effective 1 January 1888 onward: Germany's national hallmarking law (Feingehaltsgesetz) sets 800/1000 as the legal minimum silver fineness and introduces the crescent-moon-and-crown national mark, replacing dozens of older regional systems.

• 800 silver is genuinely hallmarked precious metal, not a fake or lesser substitute for sterling -- it is a legitimate but lower-purity continental European legal standard (80% silver) compared to British/American sterling (92.5%).

This research relied on a specialist antique-hallmark reference site as the source, since a fetchable official German-government or major-museum page specifically describing the 1884 Feingehaltsgesetz and the crescent-moon-and-crown mark could not be retrieved in this session (Victoria & Albert Museum's general hallmarking article returned a 404, and Britannica/Merriam-Webster were blocked). Treat this item's sourcing as supplementary-tier only pending confirmation from an official/museum source.

Turn the piece over and light the mark from a low angle with a lamp or phone torch, which throws the impressed or engraved lines into relief; a printed or painted mark wants soft, even light instead. Fill the frame with the mark, then take a second shot of the whole piece. Do not clean tarnish off silver before photographing; the mark reads better dark. The app matches the mark and shape to the notes above.