One letter a year
From 1478 the London assay office, run by the Goldsmiths’ Company, marked each year’s silver with a different letter of the alphabet, so that a faulty piece could be traced to the warden responsible. The other offices followed the same idea with their own alphabets and their own start dates.
A letter on its own means little: k has stood for 1745, 1885, 1905 and 1984 in London alone. Three things fix the year.
- The office. Each office ran its own cycle until 1975.
- The style of the letter. Roman capital, Roman lower-case, black letter (the Gothic style), italic or script.
- The shape of the shield. The outline changed at the start of every cycle.
With those three, one table gives the year.
How the cycles run
A cycle covers one alphabet, with some letters left out. Every British office omitted j, because the letter was not distinguished from i in the punch-cutter’s alphabet. London also stopped at u, so a London cycle runs 20 years. Birmingham and Sheffield ran to z, so theirs run 25.
When a cycle ended, the office started again at a with a new letter style and a new shield shape. That shield is what separates two letters sixty years apart.
The cycles the identifier carries
| Office | Years | Letters | Style |
|---|---|---|---|
| London | 1876 to 1895 | a to u | Roman capitals |
| London | 1896 to 1915 | a to u | Roman lower-case |
| London | 1916 to 1935 | a to u | Black letter lower-case |
| London | 1936 to 1955 | a to u | Roman capitals |
| London | 1956 to 1974 | a to t | Roman lower-case |
| Birmingham | 1875 to 1899 | a to z | Lower-case |
| Birmingham | 1900 to 1924 | a to z | Lower-case |
| Birmingham | 1925 to 1949 | a to z | Capitals |
| Birmingham | 1950 to 1974 | a to z | Capitals |
| Sheffield | 1918 to 1942 | a to z | Lower-case |
| Sheffield | 1943 to 1967 | a to z | Capitals |
| All offices | 1975 to 1999 | A to Z | Capitals |
| All offices | 2000 onwards | a to z | Lower-case |
Count forward from the start year to find the letter. The 1896 London cycle puts a at 1896, b at 1897 and so on, skipping j, which puts k at 1905 and u at 1915. The identifier does the counting.
Earlier London cycles, Sheffield before 1918, and Edinburgh, Chester, Glasgow and Dublin in every period are not in the tool yet. They are in Bradbury’s Book of Hallmarks, the pocket reference the trade has used for a century, which costs less than a spoon and fits in a jacket. Chester and Glasgow closed in 1962 and 1964, and the rare marks guide covers the closed offices and the Sheffield letters that run out of alphabetical order.
The year does not start in January
The letter changed part way through the calendar year, when the office’s wardens were elected.
| Office | Letter changed | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| London, to 1974 | 19 May | The 1807 letter covers May 1807 to May 1808 |
| Birmingham, to 1974 | 1 July | |
| Sheffield, to 1974 | 1 July, and earlier in the year before 1824 | |
| All offices, from 1975 | 1 January | The date letter and the calendar year agree |
This is why the Desk writes Georgian and Victorian dates as a span where it matters: a London piece with the 1807 letter was assayed between May 1807 and May 1808, and could carry either year in a catalogue.
The two things people get wrong
Trusting the letter without the shield. The London cycle of 1876 used Roman capitals in a shield with a pointed base. The 1936 cycle used Roman capitals again, in a shield with a flat base and cut corners. Same letters, sixty years apart, and the shield is the only thing separating them.
Reading a duty mark or a maker’s initial as the date letter. The sovereign’s head is a portrait, not a letter. The maker’s mark has two or more letters. The date letter is the single letter in its own shield, and the hallmarks guide shows the full row in order.
When the date letter lies
Four situations put a date on a piece that the object does not deserve.
Transposed marks. A panel of hallmarks cut from a damaged piece and let into a newer one. It is a forgery, and it shows as a faint seam around the marks, a difference in colour where the solder ran, and a hallmark that sits on a surface that has been worked. Breathe on the area and the seam appears.
Duty dodgers. Between 1784 and 1890 duty was charged by weight, so some makers had a small item assayed and transferred its marks to a large one. Georgian pieces with marks in an odd position, or with a date letter that does not match the style of the object, are worth a specialist’s opinion.
Later marks on an older piece. An unmarked antique sent for assay in the twentieth century carries a twentieth-century date letter honestly. The marks record when it was tested, not when it was made.
Import marks. A piece assayed on import to Britain carries the date of import. A Georg Jensen bowl made in Copenhagen in 1920 and imported in 1928 is a 1928 hallmark on a 1920 object.
Why the year matters to the price
Georgian silver, meaning pieces marked before 1830, carries a premium over Victorian in most forms, and Queen Anne and early Georgian pieces marked before 1740 more again. The date letter is what proves it.
| Period | What it means for the price |
|---|---|
| Before 1720 | Britannia standard, rare, and priced as early silver whatever the form |
| 1720 to 1800 | The premium period for hollowware, spoons and salvers |
| 1800 to 1830 | Regency. Paul Storr and the Rundell workshops sit here |
| 1830 to 1900 | Victorian. Heavier, more decorated, and closer to its metal value |
| 1900 to 1940 | Arts and Crafts and Art Deco pieces are the exception to the rule |
| After 1940 | Designer name or scrap, with little between |
A teapot dated 1770 and a teapot dated 1870 of similar weight and quality sell for very different sums, and a mis-read letter is the commonest reason an inherited piece is undervalued by its owner. Read the letter, then weigh the piece and check the scrap calculator for the floor beneath it.
