Identify · Silver

Coin Silver vs Sterling: How to Read American Silver Marks (and Why They Differ From Hallmarks)

Turn over an English spoon and you may find a neat row of official hallmarks that tell you the purity, the assay office and often the year. Turn over an early American spoon and you will usually find just a maker's name or initials. That difference confuses a lot of new collectors.

This guide explains why American silver is marked differently, what coin silver is, how to recognize sterling and silverplate marks, how to spot pseudo-hallmarks, and how to research a maker without damaging the piece.

Why American silver has no true hallmarks

In Britain, silver has long been tested and marked at official assay offices, producing hallmarks that guarantee purity. The United States did not set up a national assay and hallmarking system. With a few local exceptions, such as a period of assay marking in Baltimore in the early nineteenth century, American silversmiths marked their own work.

The result is that most American silver carries a maker's mark and sometimes a quality mark, but no official guarantee. That makes references and close observation essential.

British marks have their own detailed references, and an English piece is outside this site's focus. The point here is simply that the absence of hallmarks on American silver is normal, not suspicious.

What coin silver is

Coin silver refers to silver of roughly the same fineness as American silver coinage of the period, generally about 900 parts silver per 1,000. Before sterling became the common American standard, many silversmiths worked to this standard, and the name reflects the popular idea that silversmiths melted coins as their raw material. Some did use coins; others used bullion or scrap.

Common coin silver marks

• Maker's name, surname or initials, often in a rectangle or cartouche, sometimes with a town.
• Quality words: COIN, PURE COIN, C, DOLLAR, STANDARD, PREMIUM or similar.
• Retailer marks: many pieces were made by one firm and marked by a retailer or jeweler, so the name on the piece may not be the maker.
• Pseudo-hallmarks: small device marks such as heads, eagles or stars in shapes that imitate English marks.

Coin silver is most often seen in spoons, ladles, cups, beakers and small hollowware. Over the middle and later nineteenth century, American makers generally moved to the sterling standard, and the shift was widespread by the later decades of the century.

Sterling and other marks

Sterling silver is 925 parts silver per 1,000. American sterling is typically marked STERLING, often with a maker's trademark, pattern name, or catalog number. Some marks include patent or design dates, which tell you when a pattern was registered, not when a particular piece was made.

Silverplate marks

Silverplate is a thin layer of silver over a base metal such as copper, nickel silver or britannia metal. Marks that usually indicate plate include:

• EP, EPNS, EPBM, EPC (electroplated on various bases)
• “Quadruple plate,” “triple plate,” “A1,” “XII” or other weight-of-plating terms
• “Silver on copper,” “Silver soldered,” “Nickel silver,” “German silver” (the last two contain no silver)
• Worn areas showing a different-colored metal underneath

Silverplate can be well made and collectible, but it is a different material from solid silver and should be described accurately.

Pseudo-hallmarks and misleading marks

Some American silversmiths stamped small marks that look like English hallmarks: a head, an eagle, a star, a letter in a shield. These are often called pseudo-hallmarks. They were partly decorative and partly a nod to the prestige of English silver.

New collectors sometimes misidentify these as English marks. The clues that you are looking at pseudo-hallmarks:

• The marks do not match the standard British sequence or shapes in a reference.
• They appear alongside an American maker's name or town.
• There is no clear date letter consistent with a British assay office.
• They appear on silver of coin fineness rather than sterling.

Other misleading marks include added fake English hallmarks on base metal, and fake maker marks on reproductions. Our guide to the maker-mark trap explains how to approach any name that seems too good.

How to research a maker

1. Photograph every mark in good raking light and transcribe it exactly, including punctuation and shape.
2. Separate the marks: maker or retailer, quality mark, pseudo-hallmarks, pattern marks.
3. Look up the maker in American silversmith directories. Many list working dates and locations.
4. Check the form and style against the maker's period. A spoon shape or decoration style that is later than the maker's working years is a red flag.
5. Compare with documented pieces, ideally in museum collections and auction archives.
6. Research comparables using sold listings for the same maker and form.

Testing and care

Testing

Acid testing requires a scratch or file mark, which damages the piece. Many dealers and serious collectors avoid it on items of interest. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis, available at some dealers, refiners and labs, is non-destructive and can report surface composition, though plated or surface-enriched items need careful interpretation. A magnet test is a crude screen: silver is not magnetic, but many non-magnetic metals are not silver either.

Cleaning

• Use a gentle silver polish and a soft cloth, sparingly. Every polish removes a little metal.
• Avoid dips on pieces with marks, engraving or oxidized decoration; dips can strip patina from recesses.
• Do not polish marks aggressively; worn marks are hard to read and impossible to restore.
• Store in anti-tarnish cloth or bags, away from rubber bands, felt with sulfur, and oak.

Buying tips and red flags

• A famous early maker's mark on a piece in a later style.
• Marks that look stamped on top of a worn surface while the edges remain crisp.
• Seams or solder lines in places a period maker would not have used them.
• “Sterling” claims without marks, or marks that look cast rather than struck.
• Monograms removed by heavy buffing, which thins the metal and can blur nearby marks.