What and where is it from (solved)

I got this in today and I have no idea what it is. The dark staining on it will rub off fairly easy with a finger and shows bright colors once cleaned. When closed it measures 1/4 inch thick and is 3 1/8 x 5 inches closed. The holder (?) looking piece is spring loaded and fairly strong. The engraving around the initials is fairly deep and is just showing signs of silver below the gold surroundings. I have searched several sights for the hallmark but found nothing even close, which really means very little with my shallow knowledge of hallmarks. Total weight is 155 grams.

Any ideas and does anyone know the hallmark?

It says sterling and 14k.
It is a sterling silver cigarette case with 14K gold trim. I have one very similar.

jimdoc said:

It says sterling and 14k.
It is a sterling silver cigarette case with 14K gold trim. I have one very similar.

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Thanks, it just seemed thin for a cigarette case, but I am far from an expert on this type stuff. The strips of gold and copper are inlaid, and not plated on, so I am hoping that is a good sign of it's PM value.

Corrected grammer

It may be rose gold and not copper. I can't see them using copper inlays on a sterling case with gold trim.
It is hard to tell in the pictures.

I would be curious as to how much gold is in yours.

To be honest Jim, I looked and thought it could be yellow,white,rose and green gold inlays.

anachronism said:

To be honest Jim, I looked and thought it could be yellow,white,rose and green gold inlays.

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It could be. Mine only has yellow gold stripes and the initial plate, and only on the front half.

There are only three colors and I laid a new piece of copper water pipe across it and it is quite a bit darker than the copperish color on the case. Even sanding a spot on the pipe it is quite a bit darker than what is on the case. Maybe I will get lucky and have more gold than I thought.

jimdoc said:

It says sterling and 14k.
It is a sterling silver cigarette case with 14K gold trim. I have one very similar.

Click to expand...

1/4 inch is too thin to be a cigarette case. Looks more like an old "wallet" money clip

Edit - fixed

Sometimes I'm a little slow and sometimes I'm a lot slow, :shock:

I stone tested the three colors on the outside and they all pass 14K test acids. With no visible changes at all. The inside, even the gold-ish color, won't hold up to even 14K acid.

Using Potassium Dichromate none of the outside colors showed any change that I could detect by eye, and left no visible change to the surface, even after a light sanding to clean the areas. Inside the case the the color shifted to a fairly deep red within a few seconds, and left a whitish color spot after wiping off the solution.

Shark said:

Sometimes I'm a little slow and sometimes I'm a lot slow, :shock:

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I was wrong, it IS a cigarette case. I found one that's very similar, even the stripes.

http://collectibles-vintage.blogspot.com/2014/01/cigarette-case-art-deco-sterling-silver-14K-gold.html

Edit - different hallmark though

Grelko said:

Shark said:

Sometimes I'm a little slow and sometimes I'm a lot slow, :shock:

Click to expand...

I was wrong, it IS a cigarette case. I found one that's very similar, even the stripes.

http://collectibles-vintage.blogspot.com/2014/01/cigarette-case-art-deco-sterling-silver-14K-gold.html

Edit - different hallmark though

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Thanks, I just found one, almost identical with the right hallmark. Crying shame mine is beat up so bad.

https://picclick.com/James-E-Blake-Co-Sterling-Silver-14k-142392012241.html

This thing is going to be good I think.

The inside came off as gold flakes as well.

This is right after adding another shot of nitric. Only a couple of very tiny trailing bubbles and no red fumes at all.



One piece of the foil from the back side of the case. It sound like a piece of loose tin on a tin roof.

Definitely a cigarette case. In 1980, when silver briefly went to $52/oz, the place I worked for had about 200 buckets filled mostly with sterling, at one point, waiting to be refined. After having been carefully gone through, of course. I saw lots of cigarette cases. Once, we found a British spoon hallmarked in the 1300's. Frantic times for the buyers and refiners.

It's a business card holder.

Palladium said:

It's a business card holder.

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That's what I thought too. I've been trolling the antique shops looking for one in sterling for a while.

https://www.google.com/search?q=sterling+cigarette+case&client=firefox-b-1&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj8oJfUwtXaAhVGI6wKHS9uDXcQ_AUICygC&biw=1138&bih=511

This does not include the smaller foils from the inside of the case which produced quite a bit more than I expected.

I meant to show you this the other day Shark. In case you might need some.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/987305671429048