The assay mark -- the famous lion. This silver hallmark testifies that the piece has been tested as sterling silver, i.e., an alloy that is 92.5% pure silver. Prior to 1831, this was the mark of the lion passant guardant -- (in heraldic terms, the lion walking to the left with its head turned to look at the spectator). After 1831, the head was turned from full face to profile (the lion passant).
The town mark. This is the mark of the city where the assay office was situated. The first assay office was in London, its mark of a leopard's head (wearing a crown until 1831) is still in use today. Edinburgh and Dublin, the capitals of Scotland and Ireland, were soon granted assay offices, and provincial English cities such as York, Chester, Norwich and many others soon followed. Sheffield and Birmingham, which both began assaying silver in 1773, are the only cities outside of London whose assay offices are still working. Their town marks of an anchor (Birmingham) and
a crown (Sheffield) are the most frequently found after London's leopard's head.
The date letter. Each year, which runs from May till April, is allocated a different letter. A cycle of 20 letters is used (omitting J, V, W, X, Y, and Z) so there are five cycles in a century. Each cycle has its own style of letter and/or its uniquely shaped shield. The original purpose of this letter was not to record the year in which the piece was assayed, but to identify the Assay Master (who was appointed annually in May) so that he could be called to account if he passed lower grade silver as sterling. To be pedantically correct, the date of silver should include two years, for example 1783-4, but in practice we usually use only the first of the years that the letter spanned, e.g., 1783.
The maker's mark. This consists of his or her two initials (except in the Britannia period from 1695 to 1720 when the marks was the first two letters of his name). Early makers often used an emblem with or without their initials.
Source:
http://www.onlinesterling.com/helpfulhints/sterling-hallmarks.htm
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