Silver hallmarks by country — the marks you actually meet

The British system is the most standardised. Look for four punches together: the lion passant (sterling standard, 92.5%), the town mark (an anchor for Birmingham, a leopard's head for London, a rose crowned for Sheffield, a castle for Edinburgh), the date letter (a rotating alphabet, often in different fonts and shields per cycle) and the maker's initials.

Ireland uses a crowned harp and a Hibernia figure. Britannia standard (95.8%) is marked with the seated Britannia figure and appears mostly on early 18th-century pieces and some special commissions.

The head of Minerva in profile is the classic French sterling mark for silver of at least 950 fineness (first standard), introduced in 1838. Small pieces and imports carry different variants — a crab head for large export items, and a boar's head for small silver.

The maker's mark is a diamond-shaped punch with two initials framing a small symbol. Older French silver has separate warden and city marks; a specialist reference is required to date the exact year.

Modern German silver carries a three-figure fineness number (usually 800, 835 or 925) together with a crescent moon and imperial crown (Halbmond und Reichskrone) introduced in 1888. City and maker marks appear on older or high-end pieces.

Austro-Hungarian silver used a Diana head with numbers indicating both purity and city; Swiss silver often carries a bear or crossbow together with the fineness number.

Dutch silver is famously well-marked. The lion rampant with a numeral 1 or 2 (indicating first or second standard) sits next to the sword of Minerva (assay mark) and a date letter. Local workshops added their own maker's mark, which is required for reliable attribution.

Swedish silver carries three crowns, a date letter, a city stamp and a maker mark — one of the most complete systems anywhere. Danish silver, including Georg Jensen, often includes a purity number, a maker mark and an assay date.

American silver is far less regulated. From roughly 1860 onward, most pieces are simply stamped 'STERLING' or '925'. Coin silver (about 900 fineness) appears in earlier work. The maker's name — Tiffany, Gorham, Kirk, Reed & Barton — is the strongest value signal because there is no official assay office.

Mexican silver typically has the eagle mark and a numeric assayer code (e.g. TC-119 for Los Castillo, TT-01 for William Spratling). Latin American colonial silver may show 'Ley' with a purity number.

Modern reproductions sometimes wear convincing fake hallmarks. Two habits help: check that the fineness matches the weight and thickness (a very light 'sterling' piece is suspicious), and always look at the mark together with the object's style and construction. AntiqID scores all three at once and flags mismatches instead of pretending to be certain.