Silver Hallmarks Explained

HALLMARKS

The word hallmark originates from the fifteenth century when London craftsmen were first required to bring their artefacts to Goldsmiths’ Hall for assaying and marking. This requirement continues unchanged today.

Hallmarking started when a Statute of Edward I instituted the assaying (testing) and marking of precious metals. The original aim of the system remains unchanged as the protection of the public against fraud and of the trader against unfair competition. Indeed, hallmarking is one of the oldest forms of consumer protection.

Hallmarking is as necessary today as it was 500 years ago because when jewellery and silverware are manufactured, precious metals are not used in their pure form, as they are too soft. Gold, Silver, Platinum and Palladium are always alloyed with copper or other metals to create an alloy that is more suitable to the requirements of the jeweller. Such an alloy needs to be strong, workable, yet still attractive.

The original statute allowed the Wardens of the Company of Goldsmiths in London to go out to workshops in the City and assay silver and gold. However, only silver that met the required standard was marked at this time, with the symbol of the leopard’s head which is still the mark of the London Assay Office today. Gradually gold came to be marked in the same way as silver. In 1363, the maker’s mark was added to the hallmark. To begin with, most of them were pictorial but as literacy rates rose, the system of using the maker’s initials was introduced.

Quite some time after, in 1478, the Wardens of Goldsmiths set themselves up in Goldsmiths Hall and paid a salaried assayer to test and mark items submitted to them. This led to the introduction of the date letter in order to make successive assayers accountable for their work.

Every piece of silver made must be sent to an Assay Office for testing to ensure that it is of the required standard of sterling silver and, provided it conforms to that standard, a series of symbols are stamped on to each separate part of each article which today, and for the last several centuries, can show the place and year of manufacture, as well as who made or sponsored the item. The law imposed on silver hallmarking is very strict and if the standard does not comply the article will not be hallmarked and probably destroyed.

A false hallmark has always been treated with the utmost severity within the law. Historically, a silver smith was pilloried for their first offence and they would be pelted with rotten fruit and vegetables. If they offended again, a limb would be hacked off and, until the 1720′s, the death penalty was the sentence meted out to persistent offenders. The reason for this seemingly Draconian behaviour was that the manufacture of silver and gold was allied to the minting of currency. Therefore, by debasing these metals one was, in effect, undermining the coin of the realm, which was a treasonable offence – the ultimate quality control!

The Hallmarks

The Britannia Standard Mark

From 1696 to 1720 the standard of silver was raised from 92.5% to 95.8% pure. It was denoted by the figure of Britannia and the ‘lion’s head erased’.

The Lion Passant

Sometimes called the Sterling Mark, the lion passant, the mark for ‘made in England’, first appeared on English silver and gold in 1544. For two years it was crowned, but has been struck ever since in its present form, with minor variations, by all English Assay Offices.

Assay Office Marks

The Sheffield Rose (formerly Crown)

Used from the inception of the Assay Office in 1773 , the Crown was the town mark of Sheffield. Because of possible confusion with the Crown mark used after 1798 as the hallmark for 18ct gold the mark was changed on January 1st 1975 for a rose which had incidentally, been used as the gold mark of Sheffield when the Assay Office there was entitled to test the mark gold after March 1st 1904. Between 1708 and 1853 the crown is often incorporated with the date letter struck on small objects.

The Birmingham Anchor

Birmingham Assay Office was founded by an Act of Parliament in 1773. It had become clear by this time to the silversmiths of Birmingham, especially Matthew Boulton, that their trade would never truly prosper without an Office of their own. Boulton lobbied Parliament vigorously and was finally rewarded by the Hallmarking Act 1773, which founded the Birmingham Assay Office.

Hallmarking of precious metals is still a legal requirement in the UK and in 2006  Birmingham Assay Office is the largest Assay Office in the World, handling over 12 million articles per year.

London Leopard’s Head

The first hallmark to be used was the leopard’s head, in the year 1300. In that year, a decree by Edward I laid down that silver or gold could not be made or sold unless it was marked by the leopard’s head or ‘The King’s Mark’ as it was then known. This mark became ‘crowned’ in 1478 and remained ‘crowned’ until 1821. Since 1821, the uncrowned leopard’s head has remained as the distinguishing mark of London.

The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, more commonly known as the Goldsmiths’ Company, is one of the Twelve Great Livery Companies of the City of London and received its first royal charter in 1327.   Founded to regulate the craft or trade of the goldsmith, the Goldsmiths’ Company has been responsible since 1300 for testing the quality of gold, silver and, from 1975, platinum articles. In 2010 Palladium was brought into this regime.

Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1913

Other responsibilities of Assay Office London include the annual examination of coins manufactured by the Royal Mint, known as the Trial of the Pyx and, with the assistance of the Antique Plate Committee, the checking of items of antique silver plate suspected of having contravened the Hallmarking Act.

Edinburgh Castle & Thistle

Scottish hallmarks have been regulated by statute since 1457 but the earliest known example dates only from 1556 – 7. The Incorporation of Goldsmiths of the City of Edinburgh was thought to be in the 1490’s and the earliest surviving records date from 1525.

Dublin — Hibernia and Harp

The hallmarking of Irish silver began towards the middle of the 17th century. The mark of origin is the Harp Crowned and it appears with a date letter and maker’s mark. In 1731, the figure of Hibernia was added

The Dublin Assay Office was established in 1637 to supervise the assaying of all gold and silver throughout the whole of Ireland. Originally, hallmarks consisted of the goldsmiths’ proper mark which was the maker’s mark originally used to identify the silversmith or goldsmith responsible for making the article. The fineness mark, the harp crown was applied to 22 carat gold and sterling silver, which was silver of a standard of 925 parts of fine silver in each 1000.