I have a feeling this piece is older. It tests at at least sterling but doesn’t have any purity mark… just these mysyerious maker marks. Ive been stumped by this piece for months. Anyone have any info that might help me solve the mystery?
No luck so far. One would think that a mark that distinctive would be easy to track down, but no. And the maker certainly wanted you to know who he was! 
If you tested just the surface, it might be silverplate, not sterling.
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Thank you for looking into it. Because of some pretty deep existing scratches in the piece I was able to test and determine with a high degree of certainty that it is in fact solid silver. This is one reason I feel this piece is older. I think it is unlikely a more contemporary craftsman would make something that looks essentially like a giant 3 lb pie tin out of solid silver.
So I know its silver, but I am still dying to know who made it, when, and frankly… why.
I’m with you on that one! In fact, it’s hard to imagine a silversmith in any period making such profligate use of what has always been a precious metal. Also, a newer piece, no matter where it’s from, would almost certainly have some marking that indicates that it’s sterling - no silversmith wants to hide that fact.
The national origin would be a useful starting place, but there’s nothing to indicate where to start the hunt. At least it’s not from the U.K., since it lacks hallmarks, which have been legally required pretty much forever. The use of Latin letters (the M and A could be Cyrillic or Greek, but not the G) rules out another chunk of possible origins. But beyond that, it will probably require a very lucky guess.
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Totally. One dealer I showed it to said it was likely Dutch or American if he had to guess. Such a fascinating piece. I doubt Ill ever know it’s story!
The bottom is also slightly convex instead of being flat… just to add to the mystery
It really does have kind of a late-17th Century “vibe” to it. The simplicity, the “lumpiness,” and the heft all suggest an early date.
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You think it could really be that old?
It’s certainly a puzzle. I can’t shake the feeling that anything made beyond about the mid-18th Century would have some kind of recognizable markings. On the other hand, the punch and the engraved initials all look as crisp as if they had been made very recently. Maybe this was fashioned by some eccentric, wealthy, amateur backyard silversmith in 2013.
Where did you acquire this weird lump of silver?
I found it at a second hand shop in Wisconsin at the beginning of the summer. It was so heavily tarnished that the marks were barely visible. I didnt even realize it was silver until I got it home and started cleaning it.
What ever it is, its an awful lot of silver to have paid less than $4 for!
The engraving looked newer to me too but the impressed stamp reminded me of an older style particularly with the strange lettering format.
Here’s what happened:
This was picked up in a junk shop by some collector who could never figure out what it was. But he couldn’t bear to sell it for the melt value, because it might be worth much, much more. So he hung onto it for decades, hoping that some day, the meaning of the mysterious markings would be revealed. When his heirs were clearing out his house, they said, “WTF is this?” They sold it to the junk shop, along with a hundred other things, for $20. The junk shop sold it to you.
Now, you can repeat this scenario. 
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Yes but with the caveat that my son will carry the torch for me when Im gone.
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The form of the capital ‘G’ has not been commonly used since, perhaps, the 19th Century. (Please correct me if I am mistaken).
But the engraved MaMaGa (note the extra ‘a’ after the G) is surely made with an electric implement, which was not introduced until halfway through the 20th century. So far as I know, there is no way to get that ‘chatter’ with a burin/graver. Does anyone else have another opinion on how these letters could have been made?
Maybe the marks were made at very different times. I can imagine a naughty child picking up somebody’s new engraving pen and having a go.
Then again, the engraved ‘g’ is also odd.
Just an addition to your mystery!