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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;gimbler-dave, post: 293313, member: 313&quot;]Just a quick update on the Assay Office. After the pictures of the hallmarks were emailed to them, I received an automated reply letting me know that the person doing the research was out of the office until Thursday, so I don&#039;t expect to hear back until the end of the week. The researcher handling this only works there 2 days a week, so it could potentially be longer. I will update this thread once I have their information. To recap, they checked the mark based on my description, and did not find the SC&amp;LCo mark in their records. They requested pictures of the hallmarks, which have been emailed. We are awaiting further word from them.</p><p><br /></p><p>In trying to understand WHY something might have happened, I took a look at the historical silver price record. The period from 1971 to 1980 was an unusually active time for silver. From a low of around $8.00 in 1971, silver went up to an incredible $111 in 1980, with an earlier peak around $30 in 1974. The Hunt brothers were caught trying to corner the market, and silver prices fell steeply after March 27, 1980.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, during the time that these Tankard sets came out, silver was almost always going up in price, and was at historical highs. Total speculation now on my part, but given that historical backdrop, maybe someone got caught with a futures contract that became worthless, or the rise in silver prices made it a money loser to manufacture these as originally conceived. This was not a normal market during those years, and maybe an &quot;old school&quot; silver company (SC&amp;L) got caught in a bad position, their long existence in a conservative market blinding them to the reality of what was happening.</p><p><br /></p><p>At this point, I remain most puzzled at the inability to find a single comparable for the Tankards. With SC&amp;L claiming a population of 800 pieces, each individually packaged in beautiful presentation case as shown in our pictures, these would not be something carelessly tossed in the garbage. Neither were they so valuable and rare that they would be stashed in a vault and forgotten. Even if only every few years, you would expect some ownership turnover and resulting internet record. So far NOTHING discovered for the Tankards, and NOTHING searching SC&amp;L advertising for that period, trying to find an ad or some other confirmation of their existence. Very strange indeed.</p><p><br /></p><p>Dave[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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