It came from Persia

Can you tell me if this is silver please?

 

Lovely, Miky.
The numerals (the mark with the V in it) do not indicate the silver fineness. They look like 617, if I am correct, which is probably the product number. The other mark is the maker's mark.
I don't know when this was made, but since 1967 Iran uses a lion's head with a scimitar as silver mark.

 

It looks more like 217 to me, but not that crisp & probably not helpful either way.

 

Agree, difficult to read, and it may be another numeral altogether. Not all that important, since it is not the silver fineness, but some possible candidates:
Persian 2:۲
3:۳
6: ۶

 

What looks like a large patch of verdigris on the lid is not promising for high silver content.

 

Just a thought, with that crescent moon shape, might this actually be from Turkey during the Republic period?

http://www.925-1000.com/foreign_marks3.html

 

You've got a point Bakers, I hadn't given any though to that. When someone says Persia, I get tunnel vision.
Could we see a focused photo of the crescent, so we can see which numeral is on it?
The shape is a bit on the heavy side for Persian/Iranian. Their silverware is often so overly elegant, it looks like it is either going to fall apart, or take off to celestial spheres.

 

Could be .800.

 

Does this help?
Thank you all for your input.

 

Thanks Miky.
We may be back to Persian, because it looks like the crescent is part of a circle, and there is a larger circle, partly raised, partly scratched, around it:



So probably no Turkish crescent, certainly no fineness symbol in the crescent. A mystery mark. Do you have a silver testing kit?

 

I vote Iran 84 (.875)

 

So far I tested it with a magnet.Not magnetic.
Yes I must test it. When I get a moment....
It was at the bottom of a bag of plates that someone didnt want! Thanks Any J.
Terry, what do you mean by Iran 84? Surely not 1984?

 

It's an old Russian silver purity system - zolotniks - 84/96 silver (0.875)

 

terry, you've nailed it, it does look like: ٨۴ ,which is 84.
Sometimes it is as simple as rotating something.
No lion's head and scimitar, so likely pre-1967. Or they never got it to the assayer's office.
I wouldn't expect verdigris on .875 silver, maybe that's why it wasn't sent to the assayer's office.