What does star 57 AR mean on 10k gold from Italy?

Answer 1

AR is the region in Italy where the goldsmiths plied their trade since the 1200's, Arezzo. 57 would be the identification of the particular smith or maker. The "star" has one of two explanations; it is either a Transitional Mark, following certain decrees of 1934 and their implementation in 1935, all jewelers and retailers in Italy had their pre-existing stock items of gold and silver stamped with a transitional STAR (*) mark. (five-pointed) This mark, used only until 1938, made pre-1934 items legal for trade. Or, and much more likely, it is the Elongated Hexagon Mark, which in 1968 saw the earlier star was redesigned as an elongated hexagon with pointed ends. The revised order of the core elements placed a 5-pointed star on the left, the maker's registration number in the center, and the two regional identification letters in the right. Some references show the maker's identification numbers in one to three digits while there are 4-digit maker's marks in use in many regions of Italy today.