The Army always seem s to 'mollycoddle' its mess silver.
In about 1980, 664 Sqdn AAC at Farnborough was re-numbered as 656 Sqdn AAC. Chris Pickup, the CO told me that this was something of an embarassment for the mess silver because 656 had been a squadron based in Germany and the 'new' pile of silver was far greater than his storage facilities could hold.