London silver dealer Wynyard Wilkinson suggests an explanation and chronology for the punches used on silver created by the convict silversmith Joseph Forrester, who worked in Tasmania and later Victoria. In the absence of a formal hallmarking system in Australia, he postulates that some Scottish-trained silversmiths working in Australia and Tasmania adopted theScottish practice, observed both in Scotland and other British colonies, of adding a letter punch to denote the place of origin of silver they wholesaled, in this case a ‘T’ for Tasmania.

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