York silver hallmarks, 1669
Silver assayed in York in 1669 carries the date letter P, alongside the marks below.
Where this date comes from
The cycle covering York 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 cross bearing five lions places the piece at York. 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.