Silver Hallmark Identifier: find the year, town and standard

How to use the silver hallmark identifier

The identifier has two tabs. Find by the marks walks you through the marks you can see; Upload a photo (AI) reads them from your pictures. Both are free.

Find by the marks

1. Town markPick the assay office mark: London's leopard's head, Birmingham's anchor, Sheffield's crown or rose, Edinburgh's castle and the others shown as icons.
2. Standard markPick the purity mark, such as the lion passant for sterling or Britannia for 958 silver.
3. Duty markSay whether there is a sovereign's head, which narrows the date to 1784 to 1890.
4. Date letterPick the letter in the case, typeface and shield shape you see.

The result shows the town, the standard, the duty mark and the period those marks point to. Enter your email to see the exact year from the date letter and receive a copy of the report. If a combination has no date letter table yet, the finder says so and you can try the photo tab instead.

Upload a photo (AI)

Upload up to three close, sharp photos of the hallmarks as JPG or PNG files, add your email and agree to the privacy policy. The AI reads the town mark, standard mark, date letter and maker's mark, shows the result and emails you a copy. Maker readings are cross-checked against Jackson's tables.

Photo tips for a clear reading

• Sharp. Tap the marks on your phone screen to focus, hold still and check the photo before you upload it. A blurred letter cannot be read.
• Close. Fill the frame with the marks. Use your phone's close-up mode or step back slightly and crop, rather than zooming digitally.
• Straight-on. Hold the camera square to the marks. On a spoon or fork, photograph the back of the stem; on a cup or box, the base.
• Good light. Daylight from a window works best. Avoid the flash, which bounces off polished silver and hides the punch.
• All marks in frame. Include every punch in the group, even a faint one. If the marks are split, for example on a lid and a body, use one photo for each group.
• Leave them as they are. Do not polish or rub the marks to make them clearer: polishing wears hallmarks away.

Hallmarks sit where they do the least harm to the design: under the base of a cup or box, on the back of a spoon or fork stem, inside a ring shank, on the bar of an Albert chain or inside a watch case. Our pocket watch hallmarks guide shows where to look on a case.

How to read a British hallmark

A British hallmark is a group of separate punches, each with one job: who sent the piece for testing, how pure the metal is, where it was tested and in which year. Read them in that order.

1. Sponsor's mark (maker's mark)The initials of the maker, retailer or importer who sent the piece for assay, in a shaped surround. Compulsory in England since 1363. Many firms shared the same initials, so the shape of the surround matters. See hallmarks and maker's marks and our silver makers guide.
2. Standard markThe purity of the metal: the lion passant for sterling silver in England since 1544, Britannia for the higher 958 standard, a crown with the carat for gold. From 1999 the number, such as 925, is the compulsory part.
3. Town mark (assay office mark)The office that tested and marked the piece: a leopard's head for London, an anchor for Birmingham, a crown or rose for Sheffield, a castle for Edinburgh. The table below lists every office.
4. Date letterA letter that changes every year at each office, used in London since 1478. The section on date letters below explains why the letter alone is not enough.
5. Duty markThe sovereign's head in profile, struck from 1784 to 1890 to show that tax on silver had been paid. Its presence dates a piece between those years; its absence on its own proves nothing.

Sources: Assay Office London, history of hallmarking; Assay Office London, UK hallmarks; Wikipedia, Hallmark.

The assay offices and their town marks

Four British assay offices are open today: London, Birmingham, Sheffield and Edinburgh. Chester, Glasgow, Exeter, Newcastle and York have closed, so their town marks also set a latest date. In Ireland, Dublin still hallmarks.

British and Irish assay offices and their town marks

Mark	Office	Town mark	Status	Guide
	London	Leopard's head, crowned until 1821	Open	London assay office guide
	Birmingham	Anchor	Open since 1773	Birmingham assay office guide
	Sheffield	Crown, then a rose from the 1970s	Open since 1773	Sheffield assay office guide
	Edinburgh	Castle	Open	Edinburgh assay office guide
	Chester	Three wheatsheaves and a sword	Closed 1962	Chester assay office guide
	Glasgow	Tree, fish, bell and bird	Closed 1964	Glasgow assay office guide
	Exeter	Castle with three towers	Closed 1883	Assay offices guide
	Newcastle	Three castles	Closed 1884	Newcastle assay office guide
	York	Cross with five lions; earlier half leopard's head and half fleur de lys	Closed in the 1850s	York assay office guide
	Dublin	Hibernia, with the crowned harp as the standard mark	Open (Ireland)	Dublin assay office guide

Scottish and Irish marks follow their own rules. Glasgow used a lion rampant as its standard mark, and Dublin uses the crowned harp as its standard mark and the seated figure of Hibernia as its town mark. Norwich also marked silver until 1702. Our assay offices guide covers every office in turn.

Sources: Wikipedia, Assay office; Wikipedia, Sheffield Assay Office; Wikipedia, Dublin Assay Office; Wikipedia, York Assay Office; Edinburgh hallmarks; Assay Office London, history of hallmarking.

Standard marks, and the silver plate trap

The standard mark tells you the metal and its purity. The lion passant means sterling silver, 925 parts per thousand; Britannia means 958. Scotland used the thistle and the lion rampant, Ireland the crowned harp, and from 1999 the number is the compulsory part of every British standard mark.

• Lion passantSterling, England
• BritanniaBritannia silver, 958
• Lion's head erasedBritannia silver, London
• ThistleSterling, Edinburgh to 1975
• Lion rampantSterling, Scotland
• Crowned harpSterling, Dublin
• CrownGold, with the carat

Gold standards changed by law over the years, so the carat mark also narrows the date. Our gold hallmarks and stamps decoded guide reads every gold mark, and silver purity marks explained covers every silver standard.

EPNS, EP and A1 are not hallmarks

Electroplated wares carry their own stamps: EPNS (electroplated nickel silver), EP, EPBM and A1, often in small shields that imitate a hallmark. None of them is an assay office mark, and plated pieces have no town mark or date letter. Our guide to EPNS vs sterling silver shows the difference, and how to tell if silver is real covers the other tests.

Sources: Assay Office London, history of hallmarking; Birmingham Assay Office; Hallmarking Act 1973, Schedule 2; Assay Office London, UK hallmarks.

Date letters: why the letter alone is not enough

A date letter gives the year only when you know which office struck it and which cycle it belongs to. Each office ran its own alphabet cycles, and the same letter returns in each new cycle.

• Office. Read the town mark first: London, Birmingham, Sheffield and the other offices each kept their own tables until 1975.
• Case. Capital and lower case letters belong to different cycles.
• Typeface. Roman, italic, Old English and script letters each mark a different cycle.
• Shield shape. The outline around the letter changed between cycles and is often the deciding clue.

Since 1975 every British office uses the same date letter, changing on 1 January, and since 1999 the date letter is optional, so a modern piece may have none. On jewellery the hallmark is the most precise clue to age: how to date antique jewellery sets out the earliest date for each mark, metal and fitting, and how to read silver hallmarks walks through the silver tables.

Sources: Assay Office London, history of hallmarking; Birmingham Assay Office; Wikipedia, Hallmark.

What the hallmark identifier can and cannot tell you

The identifier gives you a fast reading of clear marks: the metal standard, the assay office and the year they point to. It cannot handle the piece, test the metal or see what the photo does not show, so treat its answer as a guide and confirm anything valuable with a specialist.

• Worn marks. Polishing and wear soften punches until letters and shields blur. A worn date letter can match more than one year, and a reading from a worn mark needs checking in hand.
• Fakes and altered marks. A genuine hallmark cut from a small piece can be let into a larger fake, and forged punches exist. A soldered seam around the marks, or marks that look cast rather than struck, are warning signs a photo can miss.
• Later additions. A spout, handle or lid added later should carry its own marks. Marks that do not match across the parts need a specialist to explain them.
• Foreign and unmarked pieces. The identifier is built for British and Irish marks. Pieces from other countries, and small items below the legal weight for hallmarking, may carry no British hallmark at all.
• Makers. The same initials were registered by many makers over the centuries, so a maker's name from the initials alone is a suggestion to check.

Where the mark data comes from

Date letters compiled from Sir Charles Jackson, English Goldsmiths and their Marks (1921, public domain), and assay office records. Mark artwork drawn for Mozeris.

Sources: Jackson, English Goldsmiths and their Marks (1921), Internet Archive.

When to ask a specialist

Ask a specialist when the marks are worn, when the reading surprises you, or when the piece may be valuable. Every piece is different, so we value each one individually.

• Maker. A known silversmith, read from a clear sponsor's mark.
• Date and office. An early date letter, or a closed office such as Chester, Exeter or Newcastle.
• Metal and standard. Sterling or Britannia silver, and whether every part is marked.
• Condition. Crisp marks, original parts, no repairs or later engraving removed.
• Design and rarity. Form, decoration and how seldom the type appears.

Send us a few photos and we will tell you what yours is worth, free and with no obligation.

We buy hallmarked silver and gold every week: see sell your silver and sell your gold jewellery, or browse our antique silver.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

• How to read silver hallmarksEvery mark on British silver, step by step.
• Silver purity marks explainedSterling, Britannia and the numbers.
• EPNS vs sterling silverHow to tell plate from solid silver.
• Gold hallmarks and stamps decodedEvery British and foreign gold mark.
• How to date antique jewelleryThe earliest date for each mark, metal and fitting.
• Assay offices guideTown marks, open and closed.