The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1880-10-02
English Plato Marks.

Articles Of plato in England are exempt
ed from the caprlcious desire of the maker
to see his mark upon his goods. Tho
aoldsmiths' Company. associated as early
as 1927, and regularly Incorporated seventy
years later, in the reign of Richard II. at
present undertakes this duty AS the law
now stands all articles of plate manufactur-
cd in or near London must be sent to Gold
smiths Hall to be tested and to be marked.
For this assay they receive from tho manu.
1acturers fees amounting TO some five or
six thousand year, and from tho govern
ment fixed salary for collecting the ex-
else duty on gold and silver, and paying it
into the Bank of England. The assayers
exercise their functions with skill and i'm.
partiality. Small particles are in each in
stance scraped off the goods to be submit
ted to the test, and these are duly analyzed.
The assaycrs DO not know, and are not al
lowed to know, from whose manufactured
goods the particles have been scraped off,
but additional severity IN tho test is adopt-
cd where any manufacturer is found to have
often sent goods below the standard. The
marks adopted by the Goldsmiths' Hall are
hve in number, and each has It's own spc-
cial significance There is the sovereign's
head, which indicates plainly enough the
reign. Next follows the lion passant; this
Is the standard mark, and is known to have
been in use at the commencement of Queen
Ellzabeth's reign, but was probably intro
duccd in Henry VIIl's. The price mark
Is impressed next to it, and was fixed by
one OF those numerous acts which were
passed in William III's reign to regulate
ana improve the condition Of the coinage.
Two other impressions remain unaccounted
~ 10 hn d.,
par excellence the hall mark, and the other
Is the maker mark, which from long Gus
tom ls added to the remaining four But
the period of the manufacture is not left to
the mere vagueness of the sovereigns reirn.
The ''date letter" supplies the missing in
formation. Twenty letters of the a]nhabet
are used for this purpose, the series CON-
mencing with the first, omitting j and ter
minatng with U. On the 3Oth of Nav
every year the letter is changed, and the
shape of the letter every twenty wears.
Thus, from 1906 20 1916 ordinary capitals
were employed. The letter d would indi.
cate that the article passed the Goldsmith's
Hall in l799. With 1916 commenced the
series of small letters, 80 that date letter
OF would Tx the year as 1920. Old Eng
llsh capitals followed till 1866, and the next
series commenced with small English let
ters. These various alphabetical series
are of very old date, tho earliest known
commencing with the year 1888. But.
though London is the chief seat for the
manufacture of plate in England there
were other towns which had their own as
say Offices and halls. Birmingham and
ohelllcld did large trade, and constant re-
lations were established between the local
hall and Foster lane. For tins purpose
gEllRtp gEllRtpt u was WI callsd .:dict box" passed at the
the capital. The assaycr at Birmingham
scraped eight grains from every troy pound
of manufactured plate. -Four OF these he
retained and at once assayed; the other
moiety was carefully deposited in the diet
box, which contained specimens from all
the articles manufactured. Once year
the box was sent up TO the capital. The
assay master of the royal mint would then
take fair average OF all the small portions
it contained, and solcmnly make his assay.
If the average reached the standard the
local assayer received certificates; if not,
he was fined.