On British silver, a walking lion means sterling, an anchor means the Birmingham Assay Office, and the date letter shows the year the piece was assayed.
Read the row as a set: the lion is a standard mark, the anchor is a town mark, and neither one dates the piece on its own. This guide explains each mark, the lions that are not the English sterling lion, and the anchors that are not Birmingham hallmarks. It draws on the assay offices’ own pages, museum catalogue records and published hallmark references, all read on 4 October 2026; no object was examined for it.
What a British hallmark row tells you
A British hallmark row is an official record of metal and fineness, struck after the piece was tested, not a maker’s logo. Assay Office London describes a hallmark as “a set of component marks applied to articles of the precious metals gold, silver, platinum or palladium” and says it “Means that the article has been independently tested”. The system is old: Wikipedia’s hallmark entry records that “In 1300, King Edward I of England enacted a statute requiring that all silver articles must meet the sterling silver standard”.
On antique British silver you will usually find four marks, often in a line on the back of a spoon handle or under a base:
- Sponsor’s mark: initials in a shaped surround, for the person or firm that sent the piece for testing.
- Standard mark: the metal standard, usually the lion for sterling.
- Town mark: the assay office that tested it, such as the anchor for Birmingham.
- Date letter: the year of marking, read against that office’s table.
A fifth mark, the sovereign’s head in profile, shows that duty was paid; the silver dictionary silvercollection.it notes “It was introduced in 1784 and lasted until 1890.” Modern marks differ. Assay Office London says of the number in parts per thousand: “This numerical format was made compulsory in 1999”. Our guide to antique marks and signatures shows how a hallmark row fits among other marks on an object.
What the lion passant means
A lion passant, a lion walking with one forepaw raised, is the English mark for sterling silver: 925 parts of silver in 1,000. silvercollection.it puts it this way: “The 925/1000 (sterling) silver fineness is certified in London and other British Assay Offices by the use of the” lion passant mark, and Wikipedia records that “In 1544 a lion passant was added to English marks”. On older pieces the lion’s head is turned to face you (passant guardant); on later ones the lion looks ahead in profile. Both are the sterling lion, and neither tells you a year by itself.
Britannia silver is the higher standard. The Britannia silver entry explains that “This standard was introduced in England in 1697” to replace sterling for wrought plate, that the sterling lion was replaced with “the figure of a woman commonly called Britannia”, and that London’s town mark became a “lion’s head erased” (a lion’s head cut off at the neck). It adds that “sterling silver was again authorised for use by silversmiths from 1 June 1720”, and that since 1999 “Britannia silver has been denoted by the millesimal fineness hallmark 958”. So a Britannia figure on its own does not mean a piece is from 1697 to 1720; read the date letter too. Our guide to what 925 means on silver covers the number marks used today.
No lion at all is a warning sign on British-style marks. Platers copied the look of hallmarks: silvercollection.it notes that “The marks of electroplated silver were often inspired to the hallmarking used for sterling silver.” A row of small symbols with EPNS, A1 or a maker’s trade name usually means plate; see what EPNS means on silver, the A1, Triple Plate and IS marks guide and our sterling versus plate tests.
Lions that are not the English sterling lion
A lion standing upright on its hind legs, a lion rampant, is a Scottish standard mark, not the English sterling lion. silvercollection.it notes that “Different standard marks are used in Scotland”: its mark list gives “thistle mark (Edinburgh)” and “lion rampant mark (Glasgow and Edinburgh from 1975)”. If your piece shows a lion rampant beside a castle, read it against Scottish tables, not English ones; Glasgow’s own town mark was the “tree, fish and bell”.
A walking lion beside an anchor and a letter G is usually American, not British. Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens catalogues a Gorham hand mirror, made in the USA in 1919 to 1920, with the marks “walking lion, anchor, Gothic G for Gorham, STERLING“. That row is the Gorham company’s trademark; it has no British town mark or date letter. Our American silver hallmarks guide covers Gorham and other American marks.
British-looking rows also appear on colonial silver that was never assayed in Britain. silvercollection.it’s note on duty dodgers and pseudo hallmarks explains that “Local silversmiths used to identify their works with series of symbols imitating the English hallmarks”, marks “with no official value and are commonly called” pseudo hallmarks.
What the anchor means on silver
An anchor in a British hallmark row is the town mark of the Birmingham Assay Office, which has used it since the office was founded. The Birmingham Assay Office entry records that “The Birmingham Assay Office opened on 31 August 1773”. It also repeats a story that the symbol came from the Crown and Anchor Tavern on the Strand, where the Birmingham and Sheffield delegations met, and that “It is said that the choice of symbol was made on the toss of a coin”. Treat the coin toss as tradition.
Read the anchor with its neighbours: a lion passant beside it means Birmingham sterling, and the letter beside it must be dated from a Birmingham table. Modern anchors need one more check. The same entry notes that “The anchor mark no longer indicates that an item was assayed in Birmingham”, because “In July 2016 Birmingham Assay Office began striking its hallmark via a subsidiary in Mumbai, India.” Our full Birmingham anchor hallmark guide covers the office’s history, its gold marks and its import marks.
Quick reference: lions, anchors and town marks
The table below sums up the lions, anchors and town marks you are most likely to meet on antique British silver, and what to check before you rely on each one.
| Mark | What it tells you | Check before you rely on it |
|---|---|---|
| Lion passant (walking) | English sterling standard | It gives no year by itself |
| Britannia figure | Britannia standard, higher than sterling | Optional after 1720, so read the date letter |
| Lion rampant | Scottish sterling standard mark | Use Scottish date tables |
| Thistle | Edinburgh standard mark | Used with the Edinburgh castle |
| Anchor | Birmingham Assay Office | Modern anchors may be struck overseas |
| Leopard’s head | London Assay Office | Crowned until 1820, uncrowned from 1821 |
| Crown | Sheffield, on silver until 1973 | A rose on silver is a later Sheffield mark |
| Lion, anchor and G | Gorham, an American maker | Not a British hallmark |
The London dates come from silvercollection.it’s mark list (“London leopard’s head crowned (until 1820)”, “London leopard’s head uncrowned (1821-present)”), which also gives Chester as “a sword erect between three wheat-sheaves (1784-1962)”. The Sheffield row comes from the Sheffield Assay Office itself: “The Crown was used by Sheffield Assay Office to mark silver from 1773 until 1973”, after which it “began to use the Rose for both silver and gold”.
How to date British silver from the date letter
The date letter records the year a piece was assayed and marked, not necessarily the year it was made, and it can only be read against the table of the office that struck it. silvercollection.it explains that “Series of alphabetical letters were chosen to indicate the year of assaying”, and that “Any Assay Office adopted its own cycle of date letters so that only from the 1975 the four surviving Assay Offices use a uniform system of dating”. The same capital letter therefore means different years in London, Birmingham, Sheffield or Edinburgh.
Older letters also straddle two calendar years. In London the letter began as the mark of the Assay Master, “who was sworn in every May”, so a letter covers parts of two years. Today Assay Office London says “A non-compulsory mark, the date letter changes annually on January 1st.” and that “The font, case, and shield shape all change so each can only indicate one specific year.”
To date a piece, find the town mark first, then match the letter’s case, typeface and the shape of its shield in that office’s table. Our date letter guide holds the letter tables. A modern piece with no letter is not necessarily damaged: since 1999, according to Wikipedia, “the date letter is no longer a compulsory part of the hallmark”.
If you would rather start from a photo, this site publishes Antique Identifier - Antiqly, which runs on iPhone and Android and is free to download with in-app purchases on the App Store and on Google Play. We did not test it on hallmarks for this article, so check any reading against the office’s own tables.
Who made it: reading the sponsor’s mark
The initials in a shaped surround are the sponsor’s mark, which names whoever registered the mark and sent the piece for testing: often the maker, but not always. Assay Office London says that although it is often called a maker’s mark, “its purpose has always been to establish responsibility rather than identify the manufacturer”. The Sheffield Assay Office adds that the mark “will only tell you who registered the mark and submitted the item to be tested and hallmarked” and that this is not always the manufacturer.
Initials alone are not an attribution. Sheffield explains that “The font or typeface of the initials and the particular shape of the surround are what distinguish” one sponsor’s mark from another, so two firms with the same initials can have different marks. Compare the whole mark, including its outline, with a published register or the office’s own records before you put a famous name on a piece. Our teapot identification guide shows where English silver marks sit on hollowware.
How to spot transposed and fake hallmarks
The fake that matters most on British silver is a genuine set of marks moved from another piece, so check that the marks belong to the object they are on. Historically, this was done to avoid tax. The Victoria and Albert Museum’s record of a Paul de Lamerie ewer explains that “English silver was taxed by weight after 1720”, and that “marks were sometimes cut out from smaller, lighter pieces and added to avoid them going through the assay office”. On that ewer, “In 1944 the transposed marks for this piece were removed and the ewer was re-marked.” Such pieces are called duty dodgers.
Moving marks is still an offence. Section 6 of the Hallmarking Act 1973 covers anyone who “removes any mark from an article of precious metal with intent to transpose it to any other article”, and anyone who “with intent to defraud or deceive, makes a counterfeit of any die or mark”.
Look closely at the area around the marks. silvercollection.it notes that sometimes “a line of deeper colour appears around the transposed hallmarks”, because the solder holds less silver than the surrounding metal. Check that the style of the piece fits the date letter, that the marks sit where that kind of object was normally marked, and that they are not oddly crisp or oddly worn compared with the rest of the surface. Our guide to red flags on fake silver hallmarks lists more checks. If a piece matters, ask a specialist dealer or an assay office to examine it.
Marks that mean silver plate, not sterling
A genuine British hallmark row on sterling includes a standard mark such as the lion passant. Silver-plated wares are not hallmarked, so they carry trade marks instead: letters such as EPNS (electroplated nickel silver), EPBM (electroplated Britannia metal) or EP, quality grades such as “A1”, and the maker’s own name or symbols. Many platers set small marks in a row so that they look like hallmarks at a glance. If a row has no lion, no town mark and no date letter, treat the piece as plate until proven otherwise.
What to do with your marked silver now
Work through the row in this order, and stop when you have what you need.
- Photograph every mark. Light the marks from the side and photograph the whole row before you clean or polish the piece.
- Name the standard and the office. Decide whether the lion is walking (English sterling), standing (Scottish) or part of a lion, anchor and G row (Gorham), then identify the town mark.
- Date it from the right table. Match the date letter in that office’s table, and check that the marks look original to the object before you rely on the year.
Method and limits. This article draws on Assay Office London’s and Sheffield Assay Office’s own pages, reference entries on hallmarks, the Birmingham Assay Office and Britannia silver, the silvercollection.it silver dictionary, a Victoria and Albert Museum catalogue record, a Hillwood museum catalogue record, the Hallmarking Act 1973 and the two app store listings linked above, all read on 4 October 2026. No object was examined and no app was tested for it. A hallmark reading identifies the standard, office and marking year of the row in front of you; it does not prove that the row is original to the object.
