The Lion Passant is the standard mark used in English assay offices to indicate that a silver article meets the sterling silver standard of 925 parts per thousand fine silver, or 92.5 per cent silver. The mark depicts a heraldic lion passant guardant, that is, a lion walking to the viewer's left with its forepaw raised and its head turned to face the viewer, in the case of the early form, or, in the more recent simplified form, a lion walking with the head in profile.

Historical use

The Lion Passant has been in use as the English sterling standard mark since 1544, having been introduced under Henry VIII as part of the assay system that established the requirement for the silver content of marketed silver articles to be tested and marked. The mark is used by all four English assay offices, London, Birmingham, Sheffield and Edinburgh (although Edinburgh, an originally Scottish office, has its own arrangements), and forms one element of the four-mark hallmark sequence: maker's mark, standard mark, town mark, and date letter. From 1999 the addition of the millesimal fineness number 925 alongside the Lion Passant has been an option, and the heraldic form of the lion has been simplified.

What it means in trade

For a working dealer or estate appraiser the Lion Passant on a silver article is a binding statement that the article was tested at one of the assay offices and found to contain at least 925 parts per thousand silver at the time of marking. The hallmark is treated by UK courts as evidence of fineness in cases of dispute. The mark does not, however, attest to the article's silver content as it currently stands; later alterations, repairs or additions made by other hands may have changed the composition, and an appraiser dealing with a high-value piece will sometimes request fresh assay testing if the question is material.

The Britannia standard

For the higher Britannia silver standard of 958 parts per thousand, in use as a compulsory standard between 1697 and 1720 and available as an optional alternative thereafter, the standard mark is not the Lion Passant but the figure of Britannia. A piece bearing the Britannia mark is a Britannia silver article rather than a sterling article, and the distinction is occasionally important in valuation and in collector specialty markets.

International parallels

Other European national systems have their own equivalent standard marks: the rooster (coq) and the boar's head are French, the various national fineness marks are common in Continental systems, and the international Common Control Mark of the Hallmarking Convention provides a recognised cross-border alternative. The Lion Passant is, however, the most widely recognised English-language standard mark and is encountered throughout the international silver trade.