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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition => Topic started by: Sunnee_Dee on Thursday 14 April 22 12:49 BST (UK)

Title: Help Deciphering Initials
Post by: Sunnee_Dee on Thursday 14 April 22 12:49 BST (UK)
Hello  :)

Hoping someone with a better eye than me can read the initials on this coin locket?

We believe it belonged to someone on my maternal grandmothers side but none of us can read or agree on the letters!

Many thanks. x
Title: Re: Help Deciphering Initials
Post by: Ruskie on Thursday 14 April 22 13:43 BST (UK)
A wild guess …
B something P?  :-\
Title: Re: Help Deciphering Initials
Post by: arthurk on Thursday 14 April 22 13:44 BST (UK)
Very tentatively I'd suggest L P P. The second and third letters have some similarities in their formation, and if I'm right, one of the main differences would be that the third one is more squashed up.

It's a bit hard to tell what it's made of, but if it's silver rather than something like pewter, does the date of the hallmark give you any clues?
Title: Re: Help Deciphering Initials
Post by: Sunnee_Dee on Thursday 14 April 22 13:48 BST (UK)
Would SGP look right?

It’s silver and I’ve narrowed down the maker to 1910 in Birmingham and am thinking it may have belonged to my Great Grandfather…

Honestly, so many of my family mysteries come from that one man, lol.
Title: Re: Help Deciphering Initials
Post by: arthurk on Thursday 14 April 22 14:15 BST (UK)
SGP is possible - those were on my shortlist.

Don't set too much store by the place of the hallmark, as many items like this were made in Birmingham and shipped around the country. But if you can tie those initials to 1910, that may be one of your strongest clues. Particularly where there's a bit of doubt as to what the initials actually are, you sometimes have to settle for "more likely than not" rather than "beyond reasonable doubt".
Title: Re: Help Deciphering Initials
Post by: Gadget on Thursday 14 April 22 14:23 BST (UK)
It's too entwined for me.

Is this any help
Title: Re: Help Deciphering Initials
Post by: Gadget on Thursday 14 April 22 15:04 BST (UK)
Lots of tracing around the swirls gives me

LGP


L the most questionable.
Title: Re: Help Deciphering Initials
Post by: Sunnee_Dee on Thursday 14 April 22 15:26 BST (UK)
Thank you both for your thoughts on this.

The date does tie in with my GGFather Stanley Glyn Philips 1889-1933 and it has come down on that relatively small side of the family, so it’s definitely a possibility in absence of anything more concrete.


Title: Re: Help Deciphering Initials
Post by: arthurk on Thursday 14 April 22 15:48 BST (UK)
That does sound quite likely, and if you don't have any other likely candidates you might have to take this as correct unless proven otherwise.

Nevertheless, the first letter does seem a bit lacking in the lower curl area for an 'S', and there appears to be a more or less unattached line between that and the 'G' - or maybe that's the way that particular engraver did an 'S'?
Title: Re: Help Deciphering Initials
Post by: Ruskie on Thursday 14 April 22 23:17 BST (UK)
I don’t know what a “coin locket” is, but would a gentleman have a heart shaped locket?  :-\

It looks like if you hung it up by the chain, the heart would be upside down.

(It doesn’t help with your initials, but I was just curious)  :)
Title: Re: Help Deciphering Initials
Post by: Sunnee_Dee on Friday 15 April 22 16:00 BST (UK)
It’s a Sovereign case, brain wasn’t in gear.

I don’t know about the shape, hadn’t really considered that to be fair.
Title: Re: Help Deciphering Initials
Post by: Ruskie on Saturday 16 April 22 00:24 BST (UK)
 ;) No worries. It’s an interesting piece.
Title: Re: Help Deciphering Initials
Post by: Trishanne on Saturday 16 April 22 15:14 BST (UK)
When you look at the initials upside down (which is the right way when the locket would be worn) the initials look like SGP to me.
Title: Re: Help Deciphering Initials
Post by: arthurk on Saturday 16 April 22 16:06 BST (UK)
That's pretty convincing  :)
Title: Re: Help Deciphering Initials
Post by: Ruskie on Sunday 17 April 22 00:56 BST (UK)
I think you’re right Trishanne.  Good thinking.  :)
These things can often be tricky to decipher, but this one was impossible - no wonder.  ;D