Birmingham silver hallmarks, 1926
Silver assayed in Birmingham in 1926 carries the date letter B, alongside the marks below.
Reading it
The anchor places the piece at Birmingham. That mark alone rules out every other office in Britain, which is why it is worth finding first.
One thing to hold loosely: the assay year has never run from January. Each office changed its date letter punch on a set day, so a single letter covers the end of one calendar year and most of the next. A piece dated here to a year may have been assayed in the following one.
A maker’s mark — initials in a shaped punch — sits alongside these and is the one mark this tool cannot help with: there are tens of thousands, and identifying one means a register rather than a rule.
The same year at the other offices, 1926
If you can read the letter but not the town mark, compare it against these. The letterform and the shape of the shield are what separate one office from another.