Follow up to provide more info for "Anyone recognize this mark?"

by Steve Pearsall
(Hampstead, NH, USA)

Yvonne Hammouda-Eyre and Leigh Leshner requested a picture of the full chain (posted at https://www.antique-jewelry-investor.com/recognize-this-mark.html) and asked how long is the chain. I have attached a new picture of the chain taken next a caliper with a 6 inch scale on it. As you can see in the picture the chain is about 7.5 inches long. I did cut one link off of it to see if it looked like it was plated but found out that the chain is hollow. The metal does look like it is gold all the way its thickness which is about 1/8th of an inch thick through the wall of each link. The chain weighs 17 grams in total.

As you can see there are no clasps or fasteners at either end of the chain so it could have been longer and I only found a piece of it. None of my metal detectors are sensitive enough to pick up a single link or any other related objects that small at 10 to 12 inches in depth where the chain was found so there could be more of it down there.

At first the landowner and I speculated that perhaps the chain was off a fancy horse bridle but given that the chain is hollow we don't think it would be strong enough to take the strain and so we return to our first thoughts that it is definitely jewelry.

I continue to suspect that this chain might date back to colonial times as the current landowner's family has owned the land for about 80 years and has no stories of anyone losing a gold chain in that field. The location where the links rub against one another is worn and so it looks as if the chain was used for some time before it was lost. The depth in the soil where the chain was found at usually gives up items (coins, nails, artifiacts) that can be dated to the 1700's.

Thanks for researching this item, it is of very much interest to the landowner and me and we appreciate any efforts to ID its likely origin.