The Silver Hammer Mystery:
For the sake of completeness I thought you might like to have a reference:

The first was a column in the "Glasgow Observer and Scottish Catholic Herald" (Friday 24 Feb. 1939) entitled "That Silver Mallet Story", which quotes the Holy See's official 'Annuario Pontificio' as follows:

"It did not happen at the deaths of Leo XIII or of Pius IX, nor is any mention made of it in the 'Diaries of Ceremonies' for any of the previous popes. Mgr. Respighi, the archivist of the papal ceremonies, has made a careful search through all the diaries kept in the Vatican, and did not find one single mention of the alleged 'silver hammer tapping'."

The article does not state which edition of the 'Annuario' it is quoting from, and I don't know why I thought it was around 1913 (it must be later). Perhaps one of your readers who has access to the volumes can solve the mystery by verifying whether the quotation is accurate?

The second article, headed "The Legend of the Silver Mallet", was written by Fr. Herbert Thurston, S.J. and appeared in "The Tablet" of March 4th 1939. The author states that "However, it seems certain that for the last few pontificates nothing of the sort has taken place"