What the lion passant on silver actually means

A lion walking to the left with one forepaw raised is the most recognised mark in British silver, and the most over-interpreted. People read it as this is old, or this is valuable, or this is English and therefore good. It says one thing:

The metal is sterling — at least 92.5% silver.

That is the whole of it. It is a standard mark. Who made the piece is a different punch, where it was tested is a different punch, and when is a different punch again. A piece can carry a perfect lion and still tell you nothing about its maker.

Sterling, and the higher standard

The lion passant has marked English sterling since 1544, according to the London Assay Office’s own history. There is a second, higher standard.

Between 1697 and 1720, English plate had to be Britannia standard — 95.84% silver — and was marked with a seated figure of Britannia rather than the lion. The change was a currency measure: sterling coin was being melted for plate, and raising the plate standard above the coin standard removed the incentive. In 1720 sterling was restored, and Britannia stayed on as an alternative standard, which it remains.

So a Britannia mark is not simply “better silver”. Between 1697 and 1720 it was the only legal option, which makes it a tight and useful date bracket. After 1720 it is a deliberate choice, and it appears on modern work too.

The lion changed, and the change is datable

Two details are worth knowing because they split English silver into eras at a glance.

Until 1821 the lion was passant guardant — walking, but with its face turned out towards you. After that it faces forward, in profile. In the same reorganisation the London leopard’s head lost its crown.

On the exact year, the authorities do not agree. The London Assay Office’s history gives 1822 for both changes. A great many hallmark tables and reference books give 1821. We have not found a way to settle it from primary sources, so this guide gives the range rather than choosing the tidier answer: if your London piece has an uncrowned leopard and a lion in profile, it is from the early 1820s onwards, and the date letter will tell you the year exactly.

That is a small thing, but it is the shape of the whole problem with mark reference material online: a wrong year travels as easily as a right one, and once it is on twenty pages it looks like consensus.

Scotland and Ireland are not the same system

The lion passant is the English standard mark. Scotland and Ireland have their own assay history and their own standard marks, and an English table will not read them. If your piece carries a thistle, a rampant lion or a crowned harp, you are in a different set of tables — start from the assay office that struck it rather than from an English chart.

What it does not do

• It does not date a piece. The lion is in use today.
• It does not name a maker. That is the sponsor’s mark, and it needs a register to decode.
• It does not appear on plate. Electroplated and fused-plate wares carry no hallmark at all, because there is no precious metal to guarantee — though some plate makers used marks designed to be mistaken for one. That is worth its own guide: EPNS, silver plate and sterling.
• It does not survive polishing. A lion worn to a smooth bump is a lion that has been cleaned too often, and there is no getting it back.