These are the makers mark. Anybody recognize it?

This is the Minerva head, with the #2, which I believe means .950 silver, 1838 to present.

Just wondering if anybody recognizes the maker's mark (or maybe it isn't even the maker's mark, but identifies a place.

Thanks.

I know that silver is a very soft material, but didn't realize all the marks that were left by polishing or whatever. They are almost invisible to the naked eye but boy are they ever noticeable with magnification!

Ouch!!!

Those aren't marks -- they're patina!

I don't think that's a makers mark....think it's another city or "quality" mark.
Operative word here is "think!"

The scratches aren't patina; looks like it was 'polished' with medium grade steel wool, sand paper, or a brillo pad.

With the naked eye the scratches can't be seen. The mark is smaller than the tip of a straightpin, but I have magnified it, enlarged it, many times to get it to the point that you see above. So although it looks real bad, in reality it isn't.

At first I couldn't find any mark, other than the Minerva head but somebody told me to look for a dot somewhere on the spoon, as the French are notorious for 'hiding' their marks. Lo and behold after much magnfying I found this.

I just haven't quite figured out what exactly the picture is! The letters look like L & G with something in between them, so could be a maker mark, or a place mark.

I took a quick look in Tardy's - & I don't even pretend to understand the intricacies of the French marking system - but the maker's mark has been in a lozenge like the one shown on your spoon since 1797. Who that maker might be is a mystery. If the minerva head has a '2', it indicates a fineness of .800 & a '1' means .950 although I can't really tell from the photo exactly how yours is marked. HTH

Website for French silversmiths with initials L & G. I'm not sure if this is useful but it may give you a place to start.

Here is a link that might be useful: French Silversmiths