Can you ID 14k communist gold marks?

I recently found this at the beach, and haven’t cleaned it yet. The reddish brownish tint/corrosion is typical at this beach for older 14k gold, probably lost a few decades ago.

The top photo shows the hallmarks on the back of the item.

At the center mark appears to be a 5, followed by a star with a hammer and sickle inside. Then is the gold mark, which reads 583, which is approx. 14k.

At the right mark appears to be a star.

At the left mark appears to be a dot about center height, then a 6, then a thick “W”.
Or it could be upside down, a thick “M” or bird wings, a 9, and a dot about center height.

On the front in the 2 bottom photos on the left, is a star mark on the right side of the item.

Does anyone have any idea what the marks mean, besides the 583 14k gold mark.
Or what it is?

European marks usually include a date mark, and manufacturer’s mark. But these marks are a mystery, except the star with a hammer and sickle inside.

Detecting since Feb, 2010
E-trac with 18"x15" SEF, 13" Ultimate coil, Pro coil, Minelab 8" coil, 4.5"x7" SEF, Sunray target probe
CTX3030 with 17"x13" DD coil, 11" DD coil

I don't know. More questions though... Do you think that stone is emerald? What is that item? Cuff link?

This is the Soviet Union jewelery. Hallmarks in USSR contained at least a two parts: maker's stamp and stamp of the State Inspectorate Assay Office (SIAO). Each SIAO had have its own code of one letter of cyrillic alphabet. Like this:
B - (Upper Volga SIAO) area of Ivanovo, Kostroma and Jaroslavl regions;
H - (West Siberia SIAO) area of Altai, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Omsk and Tomsk regions;
M - (Central SIAO) area of Belgorod, Briansk, Voronej, Kaluga, Kursk, Moscow, Orel, Smolensk, Tver, Bajkonur cosmodrome.
And so on...
So in your picture we have jewelery, assayed by SIAO with code of cyrillic letter [ [en.wikipedia.org]) ] (the forum engine does not like cyrillic letters) which is Podmoskovnaja, i.e. Situated near Moskow SIAO area of Moskow, Razan and Tambow regions. The star with hummer and sickle is symbol of State Inspectorate and 583 is for sure grade of gold. When USSR adopted metric grading system, nearest grade for 14K oviously was 583. But western customers undervalued it because it was, in fact, lower grade than 14K. So Soviet authorities decided to upgarade it to 585 to be in tact. Now 585 is the standard.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2013 11:44PM by YuriyV.

YuriyV Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This is the Soviet Union jewelery. Hallmarks in
> USSR contained at least a two parts: maker's stamp
> and stamp of the State Inspectorate Assay Office
> (SIAO). Each SIAO had have its own code of one
> letter of cyrillic alphabet. Like this:
> B - (Upper Volga SIAO) area of Ivanovo, Kostroma
> and Jaroslavl regions;
> H - (West Siberia SIAO) area of Altai, Kemerovo,
> Novosibirsk, Omsk and Tomsk regions;
> M - (Central SIAO) area of Belgorod, Briansk,
> Voronej, Kaluga, Kursk, Moscow, Orel, Smolensk,
> Tver, Bajkonur cosmodrome.
> And so on...
> So in your picture we have jewelery, assayed by
> SIAO with code of cyrillic letter [
> [en.wikipedia.org]) ] (the
> forum engine does not like cyrillic letters) which
> is Podmoskovnaja, i.e. Situated near Moskow SIAO
> area of Moskow, Razan and Tambow regions. The star
> with hummer and sickle is symbol of State
> Inspectorate and 583 is for sure grade of gold.
> When USSR adopted metric grading system, nearest
> grade for 14K oviously was 583. But western
> customers undervalued it because it was, in fact,
> lower grade than 14K. So Soviet authorities
> decided to upgarade it to 585 to be in tact. Now
> 585 is the standard.

Thank you for that very thorough reply. As you pointed out, what looked like a “5” to the left of the State Inspectorate mark was actually a Cyrillic “Be”, a location mark.

Detecting since Feb, 2010
E-trac with 18"x15" SEF, 13" Ultimate coil, Pro coil, Minelab 8" coil, 4.5"x7" SEF, Sunray target probe
CTX3030 with 17"x13" DD coil, 11" DD coil

ozzie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't know. More questions though... Do you
> think that stone is emerald? What is that item?
> Cuff link?


Kind of hoping that it’s an emerald, being both 14k and well made. But still don’t know what it is.
As YuriyV indicated, the center mark is the location and assayer marks.
So the mark on the left might indicate carat, if it is emerald.

Detecting since Feb, 2010
E-trac with 18"x15" SEF, 13" Ultimate coil, Pro coil, Minelab 8" coil, 4.5"x7" SEF, Sunray target probe
CTX3030 with 17"x13" DD coil, 11" DD coil