In 1720, an Act of Parliament restored the legal use of sterling silver — an alloy of 925 parts silver per 1,000 — to British silversmiths and goldsmiths, ending a twenty-three-year period during which the higher Britannia standard (958.4 parts per 1,000) had been the sole compulsory fineness for wrought silver in England. The legislation, whose passage was effectively complete in 1719 and enacted in 1720, did not abolish Britannia silver but rather placed the two standards side by side, allowing craftsmen to choose between them. That dual-standard system, with its distinct hallmarks for each fineness, has remained the foundation of British silver assaying to the present day.

Background: The Britannia Interlude, 1697–1720

The compulsory Britannia standard had been introduced by statute in 1697, during the reign of William III, with the explicit aim of curbing the widespread practice of clipping and melting sterling silver coinage to supply raw material to the silversmithing trade. Because sterling silver and the contemporary silver coinage shared the same fineness of 925 parts per 1,000, it was economically tempting — and technically straightforward — for smiths to convert coin into plate. By raising the mandatory standard for wrought silver to 958.4 parts per 1,000, Parliament made coin silver an unsuitable feedstock: the coinage could no longer be melted directly into legal plate without additional refining.

The Britannia standard was accompanied by new hallmarks to distinguish it from the older sterling tradition. The lion's head erased replaced the leopard's head as the assay-office mark, and a seated figure of Britannia replaced the lion passant as the standard mark. Silversmiths were also required to use new maker's marks derived from the first two letters of their surname rather than their initials, further differentiating Britannia-era pieces from earlier sterling work.

While the reform achieved its monetary objective, it imposed genuine hardships on the craft. The higher silver content made the metal softer and more difficult to work for certain techniques, particularly those requiring sharp engraving or fine repoussé detail. The cost of the purer alloy was also marginally higher, and the trade lobbied persistently throughout the early eighteenth century for the restoration of the familiar 925 standard.

The 1720 Act and Its Provisions

The Act that reinstated sterling did so permissively rather than prescriptively. Silversmiths were free to work in either standard; neither was prohibited. For sterling silver at 925 parts per 1,000, the traditional lion passant was restored as the standard mark, and the leopard's head returned as the London assay-office mark. The Britannia figure and the lion's head erased were retained exclusively for silver assayed to the higher 958.4 standard. Maker's marks for sterling work reverted to the established convention of initials.

The practical consequence was immediate and decisive: the overwhelming majority of the trade returned to sterling. Britannia silver did not disappear — it continued to be produced, particularly for pieces where the greater malleability of the purer alloy was genuinely advantageous — but it became the minority choice almost at once, a position it has never relinquished.

Hallmarking Distinctions

The two standards are distinguished in the British hallmarking system by their standard marks, a distinction that has remained consistent, with minor refinements, from 1720 to the present:

• Sterling silver (925‰): marked with the lion passant (a lion walking with one forepaw raised), the standard mark used in England and Wales. Scotland uses a lion rampant; Ireland historically used a crowned harp.
• Britannia silver (958.4‰): marked with the seated figure of Britannia, a mark unique to this higher standard and immediately distinguishable from sterling marks.

Both standards also carry the assay-office mark (indicating which of the recognised assay offices — London, Birmingham, Sheffield, Edinburgh, and others — tested the piece), a date letter, and the maker's or sponsor's mark. Since the Hallmarking Act 1973, a millesimal fineness mark (e.g., 925 or 958) has also been permitted as an alternative or supplementary standard mark, bringing British practice into closer alignment with international convention.

Significance for the Silversmithing Trade

The reinstatement of sterling in 1720 effectively defined the character of British silver production for the following three centuries. The Georgian period — encompassing the work of Paul de Lamerie, Paul Storr, Hester Bateman, and their contemporaries — was executed almost entirely in sterling. The relative hardness of the 925 alloy suited the crisp chasing, bright-cut engraving, and die-stamped ornament that characterised fashionable English silversmithing from the mid-eighteenth century onward. Britannia silver, by contrast, found a continuing niche in certain ecclesiastical commissions and in pieces where the warmer, slightly whiter colour of the purer alloy was aesthetically desirable.

For collectors and dealers, the hallmarks provide a reliable terminus post quem: any English piece bearing the lion passant as its standard mark must date from before 1697 or from 1720 onward. Pieces bearing the Britannia figure and lion's head erased without a lion passant date from the compulsory Britannia period of 1697 to 1720, a relatively narrow window that lends those pieces a particular historical specificity.

Legacy and Modern Practice

The dual-standard framework established by the 1720 Act has proved remarkably durable. The Hallmarking Act 1973 consolidated and modernised British hallmarking law but preserved both standards and their associated marks. Contemporary silversmiths working in Britannia silver — a choice sometimes made for aesthetic reasons, sometimes as a deliberate reference to historical craft traditions — continue to submit work to the assay offices for testing and marking under the same essential system that has been in place since the reinstatement.

In the context of international silver standards, sterling at 925‰ is now the most widely recognised fineness worldwide, used as the legal standard in the United States, most of continental Europe, and many other markets. The Britannia standard at 958.4‰ remains a distinctively British option, its survival a direct consequence of the permissive rather than exclusive nature of the 1720 legislation. That a parliamentary act passed over three centuries ago should still structure the hallmarking of silver objects made today is a testament to the stability and authority of the assay-office system it helped to shape.

Further Reading

• The Assay Office Birmingham — History of Hallmarking
• London Assay Office — Hallmarking History