🔎 UNIDENTIFIED South American in origin?

[DizzyDigger]

My wife brought me this medallion (don't know what else to call it) and asked
if I could find out anything about it. Included in the lettering on the stamp is
.925, so I know it's sterling. I believe there is turquoise inset in the front.

My instinct is that it's not very old..maybe from the 1950's?

 

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[Gulf Coast Pirate]

Probably from Mexico.

 

[cudamark]

Looks like it might be a two piece medallion? The back looks like it was stamped from the inside, making the numbers and letters backwards. I see Plata 925, which makes me agree with GCP that it's from Mexico or some other Spanish speaking country.

 

[Mackaydon]

The image is based on the Aztec Calendar.
Don....

 

[Doubter in MD]

Here it is flipped.

Guad Mex Plata 925?

 

[cudamark]

Maybe Guadalajara Mexico?

 

[Kray Gelder]

Here it is flipped.


View attachment 2076498

Guad Mex Plata 925?

Glad you flipped that image. I thought I was having a stroke.

Nice piece.

 

[DizzyDigger]

Thanks all for the great input...I'll pass it along to the Queen..

 

[GlowingArtist]

It appears to be a blend of longer term Mayan used symbols along the outside to me with some celtic like marks that may be one of a kind. Very modern post 1985?

 

[Red-Coat]

It appears to be a blend of longer term Mayan used symbols along the outside to me with some celtic like marks that may be one of a kind. Very modern post 1985?

Gulf Coast Pirate and Doubter in MD are correct that the mark is ‘GUADMEX’ for Guadalajara, Mexico together with ‘PLATA 925’ for sterling silver… shown as a reverse stamp as Cudamark says.

Lots of companies and individual silversmiths made (and still make) these as tourist-ware brooches or necklace pendants, inset with turquoise. Mackaydon is correct that the design is loosely borrowed from ‘Mexica’ calendars, sunstones and such used by the Aztecs and other Pre-Columbian peoples of central Mexico.

It’s not “very modern post 1985” though. Around 1980 Mexico adopted silver marks based on letters and numbers with the first letter identifying the city of production, the second letter giving the first or last name of the maker, and the number denoting the maker’s registration. The mark here predates that change. I read the maker mark as ‘GOG’, which I’m not familiar with, but there are many smaller makers whose marks are not reliably documented.

From 1948 the Mexican Government began promoting the use of ‘Eagle marks’ including a number to identify manufacturer but the system was widely disrespected, leading to it being abandoned and replaced by the letter and number system in the 1980s. In the first half of the 20th century (and into the earlier part of the post-1948 period when eagle marks began to be introduced) pieces were just marked "silver" (“plata” in Spanish), usually with a fineness indication, or "sterling", and a town name. The maker’s initials or other identification may or may not be present. The mark on this item is typical for that period.

Here's a couple of similar vintage items with pre-1980s marks. Note that the second one has an ‘Eagle mark’ to the right, so that puts it in the 1948-1980s region.

 

[Mackaydon]

As a coin-guy, I couldn't overlook the similarity of the OP's image to this image:
https://www.govmint.com/late-5th-4th-century-b-c-greek-apollonia-pontica-silver-drachm-ngc-au
Don.

 

[GlowingArtist]

Gulf Coast Pirate and Doubter in MD are correct that the mark is ‘GUADMEX’ for Guadalajara, Mexico together with ‘PLATA 925’ for sterling silver… shown as a reverse stamp as Cudamark says.

Lots of companies and individual silversmiths made (and still make) these as tourist-ware brooches or necklace pendants, inset with turquoise. Mackaydon is correct that the design is loosely borrowed from ‘Mexica’ calendars, sunstones and such used by the Aztecs and other Pre-Columbian peoples of central Mexico.

It’s not “very modern post 1985” though. Around 1980 Mexico adopted silver marks based on letters and numbers with the first letter identifying the city of production, the second letter giving the first or last name of the maker, and the number denoting the maker’s registration. The mark here predates that change. I read the maker mark as ‘GOG’, which I’m not familiar with, but there are many smaller makers whose marks are not reliably documented.

From 1948 the Mexican Government began promoting the use of ‘Eagle marks’ including a number to identify manufacturer but the system was widely disrespected, leading to it being abandoned and replaced by the letter and number system in the 1980s. In the first half of the 20th century (and into the earlier part of the post-1948 period when eagle marks began to be introduced) pieces were just marked "silver" (“plata” in Spanish), usually with a fineness indication, or "sterling", and a town name. The maker’s initials or other identification may or may not be present. The mark on this item is typical for that period.

Here's a couple of similar vintage items with pre-1980s marks. Note that the second one has an ‘Eagle mark’ to the right, so that puts it in the 1948-1980s region.

View attachment 2076594 View attachment 2076596 View attachment 2076597 View attachment 2076598

I guess you have to be familiar with Mayan Sun Pendants and the actual tribal-like shape around the outside in tourquoise. It doesn't match here.

 

[Red-Coat]

I guess you have to be familiar with Mayan Sun Pendants and the actual tribal-like shape around the outside in tourquoise. It doesn't match here.

Not correct... and it also helps to be familiar with the chronology of silver marking in Mexico.

Note that I said “loosely borrowed from ‘Mexica’ calendars, sunstones and such used by the Aztecs and other Pre-Columbian peoples of central Mexico”. I’m referring to Mexica cultures collectively, not specifically or exclusively to the Maya.

For comparison, here’s a drawing of an Aztec calendar stone together with an enlargement of its central deity, alongside the OP’s piece of jewellery:

The border is not composed of “some celtic like marks that may be one of a kind”. It’s a geometric design known as a “meander”, commonly referred to as a “Greek key” but other ancient cultures used variants of it, including in China and Mexico. Here’s a variant of it on a frieze from the Mayan “Temple La Iglesia” at Chichen Itza in Mexico, alongside the OP’s piece of jewellery:

in both cases, the designs are loosely copied, as I originally said.

 

[ARC]

Mexican made.

 

[BAW]

My wife brought me this medallion (don't know what else to call it) and asked
if I could find out anything about it. Included in the lettering on the stamp is
.925, so I know it's sterling. I believe there is turquoise inset in the front.

My instinct is that it's not very old..maybe from the 1950's?

View attachment 2076363

View attachment 2076364

View attachment 2076365

View attachment 2076366

 

[BAW]

The stonework is what is known as "chip inlay"made of chips of turquoise (or sometimes dyed howlite) mixed with epoxy resin. The technique was supposedly invented by a Navajo silversmith named Tommy Singer sometime in the 1960s.

 

[DizzyDigger]

Red-Coat..I could write a bunch of flowering words of appreciation, but I'll just leave it at....YOU ROCK! Thanks so much for the great info. The Queen is thrilled...(happy wife, happy life!).

BAW..thanks, I was wondering how they did that.