Here's an old, dead pawn, sterling silver cross/pendant that we purchased from a well known pawn trader in western New Mexico.

We visit this trader a few times each year because of his wonderful knowledge of older Native American made jewelry and the unusual items we generally find for sale in his shop.

This cross/pendant measures 4" long (including the bale), it's 2+1/2" wide and it weighs 35 grams.

The back is stamped with a few numbers, or letters, that we've been unable to decipher.

State laws regulate what information pawn traders are allowed to give out, however this trader usually gives us a few clues about each item we're interested in buying. However, in this case, he didn't have much information to offer us.

So, based on our experience, and his, here's what we can tell you about it:

Based on it's style it was most likely made by a Navajo or Mexican artist. Since Navajos and Mexicans are all Native Americans we're quite sure that the artist is a Native American.

What's stamped on the back appears to be either the artist's hallmark or the shop mark of where the artist worked.

Although it's not stamped sterling we're quite sure that it is because of the very heavy patina, some of which we cleaned off in order to take a few decent pictures.

It was probably made during the 1970's or 1980's.

We're sorry we can't give you more accurate information but between us, and the trader, this the best we can offer you at this time.

Despite it's age this old beauty is still in remarkably good condition. There are no dents, or dings, but it can use some cleaning and polishing. However, we'll leave that for it's next owner. Our policy is that we never polish old jewelry as most collectors prefer to receive these older pieces "as is".

NOTE: Please excuse the dark spots that appear on the silver domes. They are simply reflections of our camera and they do not actually exist on the pendant.

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NOTES:

Some pictures are enlarged to show details.

The coin on one of the pictures is a quarter.

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