Day 11 – The Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee Spoon

This spoon commemorates the 1897 diamond jubilee of Her Royal Majesty, Queen Victoria. There’s a bust of Vicky herself at the top, along with her family’s heraldic shield and colors, and a globe reading, “60 years prosperity to 360 million people” with the years of her reign (1837-1897) just below.

Near the bowl, there’s a British lion and the words “Diamond Jubilee 1897” appear horizontally above. On the back of the spoon, below the Queen’s crown, there’s a thistle (representing Scotland), a poorly drawn platypus (presumably for Australia?), and the name of the spoon manufacturer, Sterling Silver Company (which is sort of a lie, since the spoon is silver plate).

The bowl has an etching of the battleship H.M.S. Camperdown, which is weird, because why would you want to celebrate a vessel that, in 1893 collided with—and accidentally sunk—the H.M.S. Victoria, a battleship named after your queen?

For a spoon that turns 120 years old this year, it’s not showing too many signs of wear and absolutely no indication of being haunted.

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Day 9 – The Fake Gold Moscow Spoon

I, for one, welcome our new Russian overlords…with this fake gold spoon from Moscow!

There are literally millions of these gold tone souvenir spoons out there. In Soviet Russia, they pay YOU to take the spoon.

The statue at the top is (I think) Yuri Dolgoruky, the founder of Moscow, and the one in the bowl might be Alexander Pushkin. And if so, the spoon is likely haunted by Pushkin himself.