London silver hallmarks, 1950

Reading it

The leopard's head places the piece at London. 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.