Antique Hallmarked Silver: Reading British Hallmarks

A full British hallmark historically combines: a standard mark (the lion passant, a lion walking with one paw raised, for sterling fineness), a town mark identifying the assay office (London: leopard's head; Birmingham: anchor; Sheffield: originally a crown, a rose since 1975), and an optional date letter.

• 1300-1478: London goldsmiths were first required to mark wares with the leopard's head as a town mark, before a date letter system existed.
• 1478-1821/1822: The leopard's head is shown crowned; a date letter is introduced in 1478 (changing yearly) to identify the responsible official (the 'Touch Warden').
• 1544 onward: The lion passant is introduced as the sterling standard mark; after 1720 it is used by all English assay offices, making it the most consistent hallmark element.
• 1821/1822 onward: London's leopard's head loses its crown and remains uncrowned from this point.
• Sheffield: 1773-1975: Sheffield's town mark was a crown (chosen instead of Birmingham's anchor, per assay-office tradition) used for silver from the office's founding in 1773 until the mid-1970s.
• Sheffield: 1975 onward: Following the Hallmarking Act 1973 (effective 1 January 1975), Sheffield stopped using the crown on silver and adopted a rose as its town mark for both silver and gold.
• 1975 onward (all offices): The legal requirement for the fineness mark changed from the lion passant to a millesimal number mark ('925'); the lion passant can still optionally be struck alongside it.

British hallmarks include an optional date letter that changes every year (historically on a fixed date, currently 1 January); the letter's font, case (upper/lower), and the shape of the shield surrounding it all change so that each combination corresponds to only one specific year, letting a specific year be read off a chart for the relevant assay office.

• The London town mark is called the 'leopard's head' even though the animal depicted is actually a lion's head, due to a historical mistranslation of the original Norman-French statute; this can confuse people trying to match the mark to an actual leopard image.
• Since 1975 the lion passant is no longer the legally required fineness mark (replaced by the millesimal '925' number), so its presence or absence alone cannot be used to judge a piece's age without checking the date letter too.

The Birmingham anchor town mark's exact visual description was not confirmed with a verbatim quote from theassayoffice.co.uk in this research (pages fetched described its history and continuity but not its shape in the retrievable text); it has been used, per the site, continuously since 1773, and briefly gained flanking 'c' letters for the 1973 bicentenary.

Turn the piece over and light the mark from a low angle with a lamp or phone torch, which throws the impressed or engraved lines into relief; a printed or painted mark wants soft, even light instead. Fill the frame with the mark, then take a second shot of the whole piece. Do not clean tarnish off silver before photographing; the mark reads better dark. The app matches the mark and shape to the notes above.

Hallmarked silver is silver that an independent assay office has tested and stamped to certify its silver content. Wikipedia's hallmark article defines a hallmark as an official mark or series of marks struck on items of metal, mostly to certify the content of noble metals. The word comes from Goldsmiths' Hall in London, home of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, which received its royal charter in 1327.

The British system is the oldest continuous one. In 1300 Edward I required silver articles to meet the sterling standard of 92.5% silver and to be marked with a leopard's head. From 1697 the higher Britannia standard of 95.83% silver was compulsory, and sterling was restored in 1720 (Wikipedia). A piece marked to the Britannia standard is therefore either from those years or a later piece deliberately made to the higher standard.

The important distinction for buyers: a hallmark is struck by an assay office, not by the maker. A maker's own stamp such as STERLING or 925 is a claim; a hallmark is a tested result.

Yes, and often legitimately. Under the UK Hallmarking Act 1973, Schedule 1, several kinds of silver can be sold without a hallmark:

• Old, unaltered pieces: an article manufactured before 1950 that has not been altered since the start of 1950 is exempt, provided it meets the minimum fineness.
• Light pieces: silver articles weighing less than 7.78 grams are exempt; the London Assay Office FAQ gives the same threshold.
• Silver from countries without hallmarking: the United States has no official hallmarking scheme (Wikipedia), so American silver carries maker's marks and words such as STERLING rather than assay office hallmarks. See 925 vs coin silver.

Marks can also be worn away by polishing, or removed when a piece was altered. An unmarked piece needs a test, not a guess; the London Assay Office accepts items for testing and hallmarking.

The marks that add the most value are the maker's marks of the great silversmiths, read together with a date letter that places the piece in their working life. Paul de Lamerie (1688 to 1751) is described by Wikipedia as the greatest silversmith working in England in the 18th century. The same article warns that the volume of work bearing his mark makes it almost certain he subcontracted orders to other London silversmiths before applying his own mark, so even a genuine mark does not guarantee his own hand.

Other marks that raise interest are early date letters, the Britannia standard marks of 1697 to 1720, and town marks of offices that have since closed. Always check that the date letter, the maker's registered working dates and the style of the piece agree; a famous maker's mark on a piece in the wrong style is a warning sign. For American silver, see Tiffany and Gorham.

Several other countries hallmark silver, and since November 1972 a group of European nations has recognised a common system under the Vienna Convention on the Control of the Fineness and the Hallmarking of Precious Metal Objects (Wikipedia). If your piece has a number such as 800 or 830 with a symbol you do not recognise, see 800 and 830 continental silver marks and 84 silver mark.