Which Countries Actually Hallmark, and Which Only Pretend To
You can only look up a mark if somebody kept a register. That single fact explains why one country's jewelry gives up its year in seconds and another's will never tell you anything at all, however good your reference books are.
Almost every country's silversmiths marked their work. That is not the difference. The difference is whether a state made them register the mark and then kept the paperwork, because a mark you cannot look up is just a shape.
Sweden does it better than anyone
If you only learn one country's system, learn Sweden's, because it is the one that rewards you most.
Sweden has run an unbroken national date letter series since 1759. Not one office's series, not a series interrupted by wars and reorganisations: one sequence, for the whole country, still running. Twenty-four letters, omitting J, W and the three vowels with diacritics. When the alphabet ran out in 1782 they added a numeral and started again. A2 is 1783. A3 is 1807. The letter and the numeral together give you the year, and you can do it with arithmetic rather than a lookup table.
A properly marked Swedish piece carries four marks together: the three crowns for the country, a town mark, the maker's registered mark, and the date letter. That is everything you could reasonably ask an object to tell you about itself, struck into the metal in four small punches.
The practical result is that a plain Swedish wedding band, worth very little, can be dated to a single year in about four seconds. Very few countries can do that at all, and none do it as consistently over as long a period.
The full-system countries
| Country | National mark | Gives a year | How hard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sweden | Three crowns | Yes, exactly | Arithmetic. The easiest of the lot |
| Denmark | Three towers, Copenhagen | Yes, exactly | Trivial. The year is struck as two digits |
| Britain | Lion passant and an office mark | Yes, exactly | Needs the right office's table, and the typeface |
| Ireland | Crowned harp, Hibernia | Yes | As Britain |
| Finland | Crowned heart | Yes | Letter and number, as Sweden |
| Netherlands | Lion | Yes | Date letter, but the tables are less accessible |
| Russia | Kokoshnik, later Soviet marks | Not a year, but tight windows | The head faces left 1899 to 1908 and right 1908 to 1917 |
Denmark deserves a note beside Sweden. The Copenhagen three towers carry the year as two plain digits underneath: three towers over 24 means 1924. No cycle, no table, no typeface to match. It is the single most readable date mark in Europe, and it ran from 1608 to 1977.
The countries that mark the metal but not the year
France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain and Austria-Hungary all guarantee the metal, and most identify the maker, but none of them tell you when.
That is less useless than it sounds, because the marks themselves changed at datable moments. A French boar's head cannot be later than 1961; a crayfish cannot be earlier than 1962. A German crescent and crown cannot predate the 1888 law. An Italian star and province number cannot predate 1968. You get a window rather than a year, and the windows are often narrow enough to settle an argument.
The countries with no system at all
The United States has never had an assay office. Neither has Canada, and Australia's arrangements were always partial. A mark on American silver is a trademark, protected by trademark law and enforced after the fact, not a punch struck by an official who tested the metal first.
This has two consequences worth knowing.
First, STERLING or 925 on an American piece is a claim by the manufacturer, not a guarantee by anyone else. It is usually honest, because the National Gold and Silver Stamping Act of 1906 made lying about it an offence, but nobody tested it before it was sold.
Second, and more painfully for anyone trying to identify a piece, an American maker's mark often cannot be traced at all. There is no register to consult, because there was no requirement to register. Some firms are documented by collectors and historians, and those you can find. The rest are simply gone.
What this means when you have a piece in your hand
Work out which tier you are in before you start hunting, because it tells you what a good outcome looks like.
- Sweden, Denmark, Britain, Ireland, Finland: expect a year. If you are not getting one, you are missing a mark, so look again.
- France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, Switzerland: expect a metal, an origin and a window. A year is not on offer.
- United States, Canada, Australia: expect a metal claim and, with luck, a documented maker. Do not expect a date from the marks. Date it from its construction instead, which is what how to date antique jewelry is for.
And in every case, the marks are read together rather than one at a time. Put everything you can see into the hallmark reader and it will tell you which of these three situations you are actually in.
Frequently asked questions
Which country has the best hallmarking system?
Sweden, for identification purposes. It has run one unbroken national date letter series since 1759, so a Swedish piece can usually be dated to a single year by arithmetic. Britain's system is older, running since 1300, but its date letters ran separately in each assay office and need the right table and typeface to read.
Why does American silver have no date mark?
Because the United States never established assay offices. American marks are trademarks rather than official hallmarks, so they identify the maker but carry no assay date. Age has to be judged from construction, patents and the style of the mark itself.
Can every maker's mark be looked up?
No, and this is the part people find hardest. A mark can only be traced where a country required makers to register, and kept the register. Britain, Ireland, France, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries did. The United States, Canada and Australia did not.
What does the three towers mark mean on Danish silver?
It is the Copenhagen assay mark, and the two digits beneath it are the year of assay: three towers over 24 means 1924. It was used from 1608 to 1977. It is not on every Danish piece, because the large workshops held an agreement that their silver need not carry it.
How do I read a Swedish date letter?
Take the letter's position in the alphabet used, which omits J, W and the vowels with diacritics, and add it to 1759 plus 24 years for each cycle the numeral indicates. A is 1759, A2 is 1783, A3 is 1807. The hallmark reader does the arithmetic for you.