Hall marks on gold & silver plate

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HALL MARKS ON PLATE.
habitation in a book there kept for that purpose, whereby the persons
and their <strong>marks</strong> may be known unto the wardens of the said
company."
In accordance with the Act of 1697-8 the maker used the first
two letters of his surname in lieu of his initials. This enactment
but in
compelled a great number of makers to obtain new punches;
1720, when this Act was repealed, many makers returned to their
former <strong>marks</strong>. The matter was settled once and for all by the
statute of 1739, which directed the makers to destroy their existing
punches, and substitute the initials of their Christian and surnames,
of entirely different types from those before used.
Sometimes a small mark, such as a cross, star, etc., is found near
the maker's mark; it is that of the workman, for the purpose of
tracing the w-ork to the actual maker thereof; in large manufactories
some such check is indispensable.
A letter of the alphabet.
III. -DATE MARK.
This was the assaycr's mark, and was
introduced in 1478, and since that time a date letter has been regularly
used, at the London Assay Office. The various alphabets, each
composed of twenty letters, have constantly succeeded each other,
different characters having been used at different times. The letters
used are from A to U or V inclusive ; the letters J, W, X, Y, and Z,
were, however, always omitted.
At first the letter was enclosed in a shaped outline following its
form, but since 1560 the letter has been enclosed in an heraldic
shield, the design of which has constantly varied.
Each Assay Office has its peculiar alphabetical mark, indicating
the year in which the plate was assayed and stamped; and, there-
fore, plate that was stamped in any other place than London had to
be, when entered for drawback, accompanied by a certificate of the
date from the office in which it was assayed and stamped.
In London, previous to the Restoration, the annual letter was
changed on St. Dunstan's Day (May 19), w^hen the new w-ardens were
elected. Since 1660 the assay year commences on May 30, and the
new wardens were appointed on the same day in each and every year.
The debased standards of the coinage of the previous tw^cnty
or thirty years were raised by Queen Elizabeth to their former purity,
and in February, 1 560-1 all the base money was called in by proclamation.
The minutes of the Goldsmiths' Company record that
on June 18, 1561, "the first dyett of the new standard was tried"
that is, the trial of the quality of gold and silver of the new standard
of the year ending in June, 1561. The restoration of what
should be more properly styled th;^ old sterling standard by the
Queen, was commemorated by an alteration in the style of the date
letters, or rather, their enclosures. This change is notified in a
minute of the Goldsmiths' Company, dated June 16, 1560, and is
indicated by the use of a regular shield instead of an escutcheon
taking the form of a letter.