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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;DragonflyWink, post: 1469383, member: 111&quot;]Probably just my own denseness, but am having a hard time following - where is the fraud in clobbering?&nbsp; There was no intent to mislead, it was just refashioning a piece to suit tastes at the time, it still serves the same purpose, no additions or removals (other than the small bit removed from engraving), and assay simply determines the fineness anyway.&nbsp; If you added a base or feet or handles to your platter, then yes, those parts should actually be assayed and hallmarked, since they are separate articles.&nbsp; The piece belonged to the owner, if they wanted to have it decorated, then they did, and am quite sure the cost was less than the price of a new piece in the desired style.&nbsp; Now, if the modification somehow involved an old hallmarked bit ending up on new piece that looked old, that would be a serious issue...</p><p><br /></p><p>Frankly, the assay offices don&#039;t care about the quality or history of the work, their responsibility is to make sure that the material is at least the fineness required to be sold as silver, gold, etc.&nbsp; The maker/sponsor mark is used to identify who owns the piece in order to get it back to them, as well as keeping records of charges, and any duty/taxes levied, when that was/is required.&nbsp; Though there <i>might</i> sometimes be a variance in cost for assay and hallmarking according to weight, the prices charged are by the piece, and small pieces don&#039;t even actually have to be hallmarked (at this time, for silver, under 7.78 grams).</p><p><br /></p><p>And regarding their value - a true collector won&#039;t like a clobbered piece, but there are always going to be people who will pay more for an older &#039;fancy&#039; piece than for a later piece that started out ornate (and truthfully, a pretty good number don&#039;t have any idea that the old piece has been altered)...</p><p><br /></p><p>~Cheryl[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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