The result of this is that before 1701 Chester had four marks, sometimes only three, but after 1720 five were used; when the duty mark was added (see [p. 395]) six marks were employed. The leopard’s head was not discontinued till 1839, reducing the marks to five, and now, since the abolition of the duty mark in 1890, there are only four. Exeter had, with the use of the leopard’s head, five marks, but in 1748 the leopard’s head had disappeared. Newcastle continued the leopard’s head during the period of the duty mark, thus making six marks, till the closing of the office in 1884.
II. THE STANDARD MARK
Throughout the history of the manufacture of English silver plate the standard maintained has been always equal to that of the silver coinage, and sometimes higher. The control of the standard has long been in the hands of the State, and, it has already been shown, the proving or assaying of all articles, in order that they may be officially stamped as of sterling silver, was allocated to the wardens and assay masters of the London and other assay offices. Obviously if it had been permitted to manufacture silver plate at a lower standard than the coin of the realm, the latter would have been melted down to be made into plate at a profit. In order to regulate the uniform procedure of the trade throughout the country the amount of alloy to be added to silver was very clearly laid down by law. The standard for silver has been in force for six hundred years, since the reign of Henry II, viz. 11 oz. 2 dwts. of silver and 18 dwts. alloy in every pound troy of plate; that is 925 parts of silver in every thousand parts. From the year 1697 to 1720 the standard was fixed at 11 oz. 10 dwts. of silver to the pound troy, that is ·958. This higher or “Britannia” standard is described in Section V of this chapter ([pp. 49-59]). In regard to this new standard, that is a standard above the sterling of the coin of the realm, special marks were used during the above period and have been used since then to the present day whenever silver plate is of the new standard. It was illegal to make silver plate of less than this new standard during the period 1697 to 1720; after this period there are two standards, the higher being optional.
Another period when silver plate was higher in standard than the silver coin of the realm was during a portion of the reigns of Henry VIII, the whole of the reign of Edward VI, and the whole of the reign of Mary, until Elizabeth in the second year of her reign elevated the debased coinage to its former standard of fineness. In 1543 Henry VIII reduced the standard from 11 oz. 2 dwts. to 10 oz.; that is, ten parts of silver to two parts of alloy. In 1545 he reduced it further to 6 oz. in the pound troy, that is half silver and half alloy. In 1546 he made a still further reduction to 4 oz., so that silver coins of that period contain only one third silver. In 1552 this was increased to 11 oz. 1 dwt., to be reduced to 11 oz. in Mary’s reign. During all these changes the silver plate remained true to its old standard, and as though in proud superiority over the coin of the realm, the London Goldsmiths adopted in 1545 as a standard mark a new stamp—the lion passant, which has been their standard mark from that day to the present time, and has been recognized by many statutes since that time as constituting the standard mark, or sterling mark of the State, or, as it was termed at the time of Queen Elizabeth, “Her Majesty’s Lion.”
On two occasions, therefore, the silver plate of this country was of finer quality than the coin of the realm: on the first when the coin of the realm was debased, and on the second when silver plate was compulsorily raised to a higher standard than the coin of the realm.
The lion passant, which is the standard mark, has naturally been employed by provincial offices as a guarantee of sterling or standard silver. During the period 1697 to 1720 the lion passant disappears from all silver in the “Britannia” standard period when other marks were substituted. But in 1720 the lion passant mark occurs again on all London silver, and in Chester, Exeter, York, and Newcastle marks. From 1773 both Sheffield and Birmingham have used the mark of the lion passant. In regard to Scotland, the standard mark for Edinburgh, after 1757, is a thistle, and for Glasgow a lion rampant after 1819. The Irish standard mark is a harp crowned from the year 1638, which mark is on all Irish silver assayed at the Dublin office. From 1730 the figure of Hibernia has been the duty mark and the harp crowned the standard mark on all Irish silver assayed at Dublin. These marks are shown in Appendix ([pp. 347-409]).
III. THE DATE MARK
Among the various marks used for the purposes we have indicated, the date mark is one which has a vital significance. It establishes with certainty the year in which a piece of silver was fashioned and taken to the assay office to be stamped as sterling silver. The easiest plan in regard to date marks would have been to stamp the actual date upon each piece of silver or gold assayed, but this was too simple a procedure for the “Mistery of the Goldsmiths.” They employed alphabets of various styles and each year was represented by a different letter, and to add further to the puzzling difficulty of deciphering these symbols, certain letters were omitted. Moreover, each assay town has its own series of date marks. Letters of the alphabet are used sometimes from A to T, or A to U, or from A to Z; sometimes the letters J and V are omitted, and in one case for a considerable period the letters of the alphabet were used indiscriminately. Various kinds of type were used and they appear in shields of differing shapes. The study therefore of the date marks of the London assay office and of the various provincial assay offices together with the date marks used in Scotland and in Ireland is very intricate, and the determination of these with exactitude might occupy a man the greater portion of his life. The standard work on the subject is “English Goldsmiths and their Marks,” by Mr. C. J. Jackson, which contains over eleven thousand marks reproduced in facsimile. Mr. Jackson in the 1905 edition had worked for seventeen years at this subject, and his labours have been stupendous; a new edition shortly to appear will represent a quarter of a century’s work. There is no other book on the subject within measurable distance of this encyclopaedia.