UK Silver Hallmarks Explained: Sterling, Britannia & Reading the Marks

Most people who bring in a box of "silver" leave disappointed, and it's almost always the same reason: what they've got is silver plate, not solid silver. The two look identical across a room. The difference in value is the difference between something worth real money and something worth almost nothing as scrap. The good news is that a British hallmark, or the absence of one, tells you which you're holding in seconds — once you know what you're looking at.

Silver hallmarking works on the same principle as gold. A genuine solid-silver item made or assayed in the UK carries a set of marks struck at an assay office, guaranteeing the purity. Learn to read them and you'll never confuse plate with the real thing again.

The lion passant: sterling silver

The single most important silver mark to recognise is the lion passant — a small lion walking with one paw raised, shown in profile. This is the traditional symbol of sterling silver, the 92.5% pure standard that most British silver is made to. Spot the lion and you're almost certainly looking at solid sterling. It has guaranteed British sterling for centuries and it's the mark buyers trust most.

Alongside the lion you'll normally find the millesimal number 925, spelling out the same thing numerically: 925 parts pure silver per thousand. Sterling is the workhorse standard for cutlery, tea sets, jewellery and coins.

The Britannia figure: 958 silver

Occasionally you'll come across a higher standard marked with a seated Britannia figure — the classical woman with a shield and trident. This denotes Britannia silver, a purer 95.8% standard (stamped 958). It was compulsory for a period around 1697–1720 and is still used today for premium pieces. Britannia silver is softer because it's purer, and it's less common than sterling, so a Britannia mark is worth noting.

The assay office marks

Like gold, silver carries a town mark showing which assay office tested it. You'll see the same familiar symbols: the leopard's head for London, the anchor for Birmingham, the rose for Sheffield (a crown on older Sheffield silver), and the three-towered castle for Edinburgh. Together with a sponsor's mark and the fineness, these confirm you're holding a properly assayed British piece. There's a fuller visual reference on our hallmarks page if you need to match a specific stamp.

The biggest trap: EPNS and silver plate

This is where fortunes are lost, so read carefully. Most "silver" cutlery, tea sets and candlesticks in British homes are not solid silver at all. They're silver plated — a whisper-thin layer of real silver electroplated over a base metal like nickel or copper. The base metal is what you're really buying, and it has virtually no scrap value.

The tell is simple. Solid silver has a proper hallmark: a lion passant or a 925/958 number, plus an assay office mark and sponsor's mark. Plate has letters like EPNS or A1 and no lion. If there's no hallmark and you see those plate letters, it's plated — full stop. When plate wears through at the edges you can often see the yellowish base metal showing beneath the silvery surface, which is another giveaway.

What the marks mean for scrap value

For solid silver, the marks tell you the purity, and purity plus weight gives you the melt value. The silver price is quoted per troy ounce (31.1035 grams) of pure silver; you scale it by the fineness — 0.925 for sterling, 0.958 for Britannia — and multiply by the weight in grams. Our silver calculator does that maths for you once you pick the standard and enter the weight, and we go deeper into current rates in scrap silver prices UK.

For plated items, the scrap answer is blunt: the silver layer is too thin to recover economically, so plate is effectively worthless as scrap metal. It may still have value as usable, attractive tableware — a decent EPNS canteen can sell secondhand — but not for its metal. Don't let anyone weigh a box of plated cutlery and quote you a "silver" price on it.

Older and foreign 800 silver

You'll sometimes find pieces stamped 800, often on Continental European silver — German, Italian, French. That's 80% silver, a lower standard than British sterling but still solid silver with real scrap value. It won't carry a British lion passant because it wasn't assayed here; instead it'll have the 800 number and often a national mark of its own. Treat it as genuine silver, just at 80% purity rather than 92.5%, and value it accordingly.

Foreign marks vary a lot, and a few decorative stamps mean nothing at all, so if a piece has unfamiliar marks and no clear fineness number, get it tested before you assume. The same discipline pays off on the gold side too — our understanding UK gold hallmarks guide covers the equivalent checks there.

Build one habit and you'll never be caught out: before you value anything as silver, find the lion. A lion passant or a clear 925 means solid sterling and real money on the scales. EPNS, A1 or a bare "silver plated" means base metal dressed up, worth keeping for use but not for melt. That single distinction, made in the time it takes to turn a fork over and squint at the back, separates the people who get a fair price from the ones who walk away let down.

All figures are estimates of melt value, never offers. Not financial or tax advice.

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