Exeter silver hallmarks, 1804
Silver assayed in Exeter in 1804 carries the date letter H, alongside the marks below.
Where this date comes from
The cycle covering Exeter in this period is read from Silver Makers’ Marks, and was not cross-checked against a second published table. The letters are given exactly as that source gives them.
The span matches the years this office is independently known to have operated, and the letters run in order with the omissions British practice would predict — which is why it is published. It is still one table rather than two, so confirm anything that money turns on.
Reading it
The three-towered castle places the piece at Exeter. That mark alone rules out every other office in Britain, which is why it is worth finding first.
A sovereign’s head should also be present: duty was payable throughout this period, and its absence on a piece otherwise marked for these years is worth a second look.
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, 1804
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.