British Hallmarks

The British system of Hallmarking Silver and the unbroken continuity of marks over the centuries is unique and a source of great fascination for many collectors of Antique Silver. Unique to British hallmarks is their variety and individuality. The object of hallmarking is to protect the public against fraud. I would recommend all collectors to acquire a copy of "Jackson's Hallmarks: English, Scottish, Irish Silver and Gold Marks from 1300 to the Present Day" as a basis of further research. It has always been difficult to determine the purity of silver in an object by visual means and many countries have tried to establish a system of ensuring that certain standards are kept to protect customers who buy silver objects.

In Great Britain a system developed about six hundred years ago, when laws were passed to fix the purity of silver in manufactured articles to be at least 925 parts of silver in every thousand parts. This standard became known as Sterling silver and, in order to be struck with a sterling silver mark, any object had to be sent to, and tested by, the wardens of the goldsmiths guild at the London Assay Office.This system represented the first form of consumer protection world wide. It was no until 1478, a further mark known as the date letter was added. This date letter changed each year and has proved to be of enormous value giving an accurate guide to the year in which an item was made. As other assay offices were established in different towns and struck their own identifying marks, it rapidly became possible to look at any piece of British silver and find marks which show standard, town of assay, year of manufacture and maker. This is a unique system and, coupled with the excellence of the silversmith, that British silver is held in such high regard. The minimum standard of silver within Britain has always been set at the Sterling standard (92.5 %), and this is represented by the Lion, either passant (English) or rampant (Scottish). The term "Sterling Silver", emerged in England by the 13th century The terms "sterling" and "pound sterling", have acquired their meaning over a period of time, and from several convergent sources. The first mention is that of "sterilensis" in 1078, and by the thirteenth century (by the 1200's) the term sterling had appeared. "sterling" comes from the Old French esterlin and then stiere (strong, firm, immovable) in Old English.

Brittania Silver

Britannia silver is an alloy of silver containing 95.84% silver.This standard was introduced in England by Act of Parliament in 1697 to replace sterling silver as the obligatory standard for items of silver. The lion passant gardant hallmark denoting sterling was replaced with "the figure of a woman commonly called Britannia", and the leopard's head mark of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths replaced with a "lion's head erased".

Britannia standard silver was introduced by the British government as part of the great recoinage scheme of William III from 1696, when attempts were made to limit the clipping and melting of sterling silver coinage. It was thought that by maintaining a higher standard for silver, there would be less incentive to put the newly issued sterling coins in the melting pot.Sterling silver was approved again for use by silversmiths from 1 June 1720, and thereafter Britannia silver has remained an optional standard for silver assay in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Since the hallmarking changes of 1 January 1999, Britannia silver has been denoted by the millesimal fineness hallmark 958, with the symbol of Britannia being applied optionally.

Assay Towns

Before the advent of mass transport and efficient communications there were many assay offices dotted around Britain to enable silversmiths to hallmark their goods. Even some relatively small towns had offices such as Plymouth, Colchester, Lincoln, Shrewsbury, Preston, Hull, Carlisle, Aberdeen, Dundee, Inverness, Perth, Cork, and Limerick. In England the main marks were for London, Birmingham, Sheffield, Chester, Exeter, York, Newcastle and Norwich.The main marks in Scotland were for Edinburgh and Glasgow. For Ireland there is Dublin. As time passed, all of these smaller provincial assay offices closed down. Pieces of silverware with rare town marks are now very collectible and command high prices when they are offered for sale. Today the only assay offices that are left open for hallmarking are London, Birmingham, Sheffield, Edinburgh, and Dublin. Their marks are shown below.

London