An upright anchor, sometimes with a coiled rope. Unchanged since 1773.
Birmingham Assay Office was established by the Hallmarking Act of 1773, alongside Sheffield. Local manufacturer Matthew Boulton lobbied Parliament for the office, frustrated at having to send pieces to Chester or London for assay. Legend has it that the anchor town mark was chosen because Boulton and the Sheffield silversmiths met to negotiate at the Crown and Anchor pub on the Strand — Birmingham took the anchor, Sheffield took the crown. Birmingham is now the largest UK Assay Office by volume.
Birmingham silver carries the Lion Passant for sterling 925 and the anchor town mark. From 1973 the anchor became the office's only mark, accompanying the Lion Passant. Birmingham assays the most reseller-grade Edwardian and Victorian silver of any UK office, partly because its founding date aligns with the Industrial Revolution and the rise of mass-produced silver tableware.
Birmingham's date-letter cycle runs from 1773. Cycles are typically 25 letters with the font and shield shape changing each cycle. From 1975 Birmingham uses the same date-letter sequence as London, Sheffield and Edinburgh. The Birmingham Assay Office publishes a complete chart on its identification pages.
Faster: the main UK Silver Hallmarks Identifier walks you through standard mark, town mark, cycle, and letter step by step and prints the year. Use the chart further down this page if you prefer to scan visually.
Click the letter stamped on your piece. The chart below shows every year Birmingham used that letter, with the actual glyph image alongside — match the font and shield shape to narrow it to one year.
If your piece’s town mark doesn’t match the Anchor, try one of the other active offices:
For closed historical offices — Chester, Newcastle, Exeter, York, Glasgow — and Dublin, see the main identifier; full per-office cycle data is wired into the wizard for those too.
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