Hallmark date letters: how to date British silver step by step

The date letter is the single letter in a shaped shield among British hallmarks. It shows the assay year, but the same letter recurs in every cycle, so you need four things to read it: the assay office, whether the letter is upper or lower case, its typeface and the outline of the shield. Only then does a date-letter table give you a single year.

By the Antique ID team · Updated 2026-10-13

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What a date letter is

Among the small punched marks on British silver and gold, the date letter is the one that looks most like an ordinary letter of the alphabet. It was introduced in London in 1478, according to the Assay Office London, and its original purpose was accountability: each year's letter identified the officials responsible for testing that year's work. For collectors it has become the single most useful clue to age, because it narrows a piece down to one assay year.

The year it records is the year the piece was tested and marked. Most pieces were sent for assay soon after they were made, but the letter does not record later alterations, engraving or repairs.

Why the same letter can mean many different years

Each assay office worked through the alphabet in cycles, usually about 20 to 25 letters long, then started again. To tell the cycles apart, every cycle used its own typeface (for example a plain Roman capital, a lower-case letter, a gothic blackletter or an italic) and its own shield outline, as the Silver Society explains. An upper-case Roman "B" in a square shield and a gothic "b" in a pointed shield can be a century or more apart.

Before the 1970s each office also kept its own sequence and changed its letter on its own date. The Silver Society notes that the letter changed when new wardens were elected, part way through the calendar year, so one letter can span two calendar years. That is why reference tables and auction catalogues often give dates like 1790-91. Under the Hallmarking Act 1973, which came into force in January 1975, the offices adopted one uniform date letter and alphabet, and the letter now changes on 1 January.

How to read a date letter, step by step

1. Find the town mark. A leopard's head means London, an anchor Birmingham, a crown or rose Sheffield, a castle Edinburgh. You must use the table for that office; see British silver hallmarks.
2. Decide the case. Upper case, lower case, or a decorative capital. Worn letters can mislead, so look at more than one strike if the piece has several marked parts (a teapot body and lid, for instance).
3. Identify the typeface. Is it a plain Roman letter, a gothic blackletter, a script or an italic? Compare letter shapes such as serifs and the tail on a lower-case g.
4. Trace the shield. Note whether the shield is square, has cut corners, a pointed or rounded base, or follows the letter's outline. The outline is often what separates two cycles that use similar letters.
5. Look it up. Use a published date-letter table for that office, or the assay offices' own resources; the Birmingham office, for example, offers a date letter archive.
6. Cross-check. The result must agree with every other mark on the piece and with its style.

Cross-checks that catch misreadings

If the cross-checks disagree with your reading, re-examine the letter. A worn lower-case letter is easily confused with a capital, and some letters, such as I and J, were used inconsistently; the current cycle skips J entirely.

What a date letter cannot tell you

A date letter dates the assay, not the design. Victorian makers often produced pieces in 18th-century styles, and the letter is how you tell a 1760s original from an 1890s revival. It also cannot prove that the marks belong to the object: marks transposed from a smaller piece, or a piece remodeled after assay, will carry a genuine date letter on a misleading object. Look for solder lines around the marks and for marks that seem too sharp for the wear on the rest of the piece.

Dating your piece in practice

Good light and a 10x loupe are all you need to start. Photograph the marks straight on, with light from one side to bring out the shapes. If you want a quick identification, scan the piece and its marks with Antique ID: it reads visible marks, suggests a maker and period and gives an estimated value range. An estimate is not an appraisal. If the date, maker or condition suggests something significant, have it examined by a silver specialist or a qualified appraiser before you sell or insure it.

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