Guide · 6 minute read
Hallmark date letters: how to date a piece of silver or gold from its marks
The short answer
A date letter is a single letter in a shaped shield, struck with a hallmark to show the year the piece was tested. To read it you need four things together: the assay office mark beside it, the letter, its typeface and case, and the shape of the shield around it, because each office has run through the alphabet many times. Since 1975 all four UK offices have used the same letter, changing on 1 January each year, and a new alphabet began at A in 2025. Before 1975 each office kept its own cycle and changed on its own date. The letter has been optional since 1999, so a modern piece without one is not unusual, and it dates the hallmarking, not the making.
Send a close photograph of the marks and a person will read them for you, free.
What a date letter is, and how to tell it from the other marks
The date letter is the oldest continuous dating system on British metalwork. The Goldsmiths' Company Assay Office traces it to 1478, when a letter changing each year was introduced to identify the warden responsible for the assay. The purpose was accountability; the side effect, five centuries on, is that a spoon can tell you the year it was tested.
It is easy to confuse with the sponsor's mark, which is also made of letters in a shield. The difference is the count. On modern pieces a sponsor's mark has at least two letters (or a symbol in an approved surround), usually the initials of whoever sent the piece for hallmarking. A date letter is always one letter on its own. If the row holds a pair of initials and a single letter, the single letter is the date.
- The letter
- One character, upper or lower case, in a typeface that changes with each alphabet: Roman, italic, black letter or script.
- The shield
- The outline around the letter. It has changed many times over the centuries, so the same letter in a different outline can be a different year.
- The office
- The assay office mark in the same row. Before 1975 each office had its own sequence, so a letter means nothing until you know which office struck it.
Reading a date letter, step by step
- Find the office mark firstA leopard's head, anchor, rose or castle for the four current offices; a crown on older Sheffield silver; or the mark of a closed office such as Chester or Glasgow on older pieces. Without the office, the letter cannot be placed.
- Note the letter exactlyUpper or lower case, and the style of the type. A Gothic capital and a plain Roman capital of the same letter belong to different alphabets and different years.
- Note the shape around itSquare, cut-cornered, shield-shaped, round-bottomed. Photographs taken at a slight angle show the outline best.
- Check against the office's own recordsBirmingham Assay Office sells low-cost access to an archive of every date letter it has struck since 1773. The Goldsmiths' Company Assay Office helps identify historic hallmarks struck before 1975, and more recent London marks, from a clear photograph.
- Cross-check with the other marksA duty mark, a lower gold standard or a fineness figure in its modern surround can each confirm or rule out a reading. The next section lists them.
The last step matters more than people expect. A worn letter can look like two or three others, and a wrong office turns a Victorian spoon into an eighteenth-century one on paper. When the marks around the letter agree with the reading, it is probably right. When they do not, the letter is usually the thing that has been misread. Terms such as duty mark and sponsor's mark are defined in the glossary.
Since 1975: one letter for all four offices
The Hallmarking Act 1973 came into force on 1 January 1975, and from then on the four offices struck the same date letter, in the same typeface and shield, changing on 1 January each year. Before that, each office ran its own cycle and changed on its own day: Birmingham Assay Office says its letter changed each July, and the Silver Society notes that the original London letter changed when new wardens were elected, part way through the calendar year. An older letter can therefore straddle two calendar years, which is why reference books often give a date such as 1897–98.
Each modern alphabet runs for about a quarter of a century and then starts again in a new style, so that no two years share a mark. Letters that could be confused with others are left out. The alphabet that ended with a lower-case z in 2024 was followed by a fresh serif alphabet beginning at A on 1 January 2025, according to both Birmingham and Sheffield assay offices.
The shield is not always what changes. The assay offices' own guidance notes show every letter from 2021 to 2030 in the same square shield with its corners cut, so a lower-case sans-serif z and a serif capital A are told apart by the letter alone. Across the centuries the outline has changed many times, which is why the office, the letter and the shield are read together.
Optional since 1999
Until 1999 the date letter was a compulsory part of a UK hallmark. Since then it has been optional, though all four offices recommend it and many makers still ask for it. A piece made this century with no date letter is ordinary, and a missing letter tells you nothing about age or quality.
Other marks that date a piece, with or without a letter
When the letter is worn, missing or ambiguous, several other marks give a date range on their own. None of them is as precise as a well-struck letter, but each is easy to read.
Marks that bracket the date of a British piece
| Mark | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| A sovereign's head in profile (the duty mark) | Hallmarked between 1784 and 1890, while duty was charged on gold and silver plate |
| 15ct or 12ct gold with a British office mark | Hallmarked between 1854 and 1932, the years those standards existed |
| 14ct or 585 gold with a British office mark | Hallmarked in 1932 or later |
| A platinum mark | Hallmarked in 1975 or later, when platinum hallmarking began |
| A palladium mark | Recent: palladium hallmarking was offered from 2009 and made compulsory in 2010 |
| Britannia figure on silver | Britannia standard, compulsory from 1697 to 1720 and optional since; common on early pieces, and used again by some modern makers |
| A crown with a Sheffield-style row on silver | Sheffield silver from before 1975; the rose replaced the crown when the Act came into force |
| A commemorative mark | Struck for a jubilee, a coronation or the millennium: the London office shows marks for 1934–35, 1953–54, 1977, 1999–2000, 2002, 2012 and 2022, some of them available across two years |
Two cautions. First, a Britannia figure is not proof of great age, because the standard has never been withdrawn and some modern silversmiths use it deliberately. Second, the commemorative marks were optional, so their absence in one of those years means nothing; their presence narrows the year, and the letter confirms it.
What the date tells a seller, and what it does not
The letter records when the piece was hallmarked. For most jewellery and silver that is within weeks of its making, but not always. Pieces were sometimes marked later, parts of a set can carry different years, and a date letter on a replaced lid or a later mount dates that part and not the whole. Reading every marked component separately is how dealers spot a marriage of parts from different pieces.
For a seller the date matters for one reason above all: age is one of the things that can make a piece worth more whole than as metal. An eighteenth-century spoon, a Georgian cream jug or a Victorian 15ct brooch is a collector's object before it is anything else. A modern letter on plain, heavy silver usually points the other way, towards the metal. Neither is a price, and neither decides the question alone; maker, condition and demand all count.
Seller risks and exceptions when dating by marks
- Free date-letter charts online vary in quality, and many cover London only. Always match the office first, and prefer the assay offices' own records for a piece that matters.
- A worn letter misread by one step in the alphabet moves the date by a year; misread by typeface, it can move it by a century. Photograph it before deciding anything.
- Import marks struck on foreign-made pieces carry a date letter too, beside an import symbol and a fineness figure. They date the British assay, not the foreign making.
- A convincing old row on a piece that feels too new, or crisp marks on an otherwise worn object, can indicate marks transposed from another piece. That is a matter for a specialist, and the Goldsmiths' Company runs a hallmark authentication committee for exactly this.
- A date letter is not a valuation. It is one fact about the object, and it is the start of a question rather than the answer.
When not to use the scrap route for a dated piece
If the letter, the duty mark or a lower gold standard puts a piece before 1900, or the sponsor's mark looks like a recognised maker's, show it to a specialist dealer or an auction house before selling it for metal. The silverware guide and the guide to what to have looked at before you sell cover which pieces those are.
A photograph of the row is enough to start
Send a sharp photograph of the whole row of marks on WhatsApp or through the photo estimate page, and a person will read what can be read and say plainly if a piece ought to go to a specialist rather than to us. Free, and it commits you to nothing. When you are ready to send the rest, request a postal pack.
Questions sellers ask
How do I find the year from a hallmark date letter?
Identify the assay office mark first, then note the letter, its case and typeface, and the shape of the shield around it. Match all four against the office's own records. Since 1975 the letter has been the same at all four UK offices and changes on 1 January; before that each office had its own cycle.
Why does my modern silver have no date letter?
Because it has been optional since 1999. Many makers still ask for one, but a piece hallmarked this century without a date letter is normal.
What is the date letter for 2025?
A capital A in a serif typeface, the first letter of a new alphabet shared by all four UK assay offices. The previous alphabet ended with a lower-case z in 2024.
Does the date letter show when my piece was made?
It shows when it was hallmarked, which is usually soon after making but not always. Parts of a set, a replacement lid or a later mount can carry different letters, and each dates only the part it is struck on.
Is an old date letter a sign my silver is valuable?
It is a reason to have it looked at, not a figure. Age, maker, condition and demand together decide whether a piece is worth more to a collector than as metal. A clear eighteenth- or nineteenth-century row of marks is what a specialist should see first.
Ready to ask about yours?
Send photographs and a person will tell you what the marks suggest, what looks plated, and whether anything ought to be seen by a specialist first. Free, in writing, no obligation.
Nothing is sold until you say yes. Decline and it all comes back by tracked post, free; ask for part of it back and a fresh offer is made for the rest.
If a piece is worth more than its metal
A signed brooch, a date-run sovereign, a watch that still runs, a piece of early silver: anything that looks worth more whole is flagged to you before it is treated as metal, and you can take it back at that point.