Hallmarks · By country
Swedish hallmarks
Sweden dates its work with a letter and a numeral together, a combination no other country uses, so Swedish pieces announce themselves before you have decoded anything.
- Marking since
- 1689
- Gives a year
- Yes
How the system works
Four marks together: the national three crowns, a town mark, a maker's mark and a date letter. Silver carries an S, gold a carat or fineness figure.
The marks
| Mark | What it means |
|---|---|
| Three crowns | The Swedish national mark, in its current triangular form from 1912. |
The standards
| Figure or mark | Fineness and use |
|---|---|
| 830S | The common Swedish silver standard. |
| 925S | Sterling, mainly modern and export work. |
| 18K | The usual Swedish gold standard. |
Dating a swedish piece
The date letter cycle begins with A in 1759 and runs through twenty-four letters, after which a numeral is added and the cycle restarts. A letter followed by a small digit is therefore Swedish and can be dated exactly against a cycle table. We do not reproduce the full table here because a wrong letter costs twenty-four years, and the tables are readily available from the Swedish assay authority.
Where people go wrong
- The three crowns in the form now used dates from 1912. Earlier Swedish work relies on the town mark and date letter.
- 830 is the ordinary Swedish silver standard, not sterling.
- Finnish marks follow a similar letter and number logic and are frequently confused with Swedish ones. Check for the Finnish crowned heart.
Other countries
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