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standards are used; the one, a thistle, is stamped at Edinburgh, 
the other, a lion rampant, at Glasgow. The next mark, or 
‘Hall mark,’ denotes the district-office, of which there are 
nominally ten in the three kingdoms. For London the leopard’s 
head with a crown on. For the other cities their arms were 
directed by the Act of 1700 to be the marks ; for York, five lions 
and a cross ; for Exeter, a castle with two turrets or wings; for 
Chester, a dagger between three wheatsheaves or garbs—a device 
which was formerly impaled with a shield of three lions passant 
—too complicated a figure to be reproduced on a small plate 
mark ; for Newcastle, three castles; for Edinburgh, a castle and 
lion; for Glasgow, the picture of a tree, salmon, bird, ring 
and bell; for Dublin, the figure of Hibernia. Of these old 
English marks all are very rare except the London and Chester, 
which last includes the great watch factories at Liverpool. Bir- 
mingham and Sheffield, which now stand next to London, are of 
more modern creation, dating from 1772. The mark of Birming- 
ham is an anchor, and that of Sheffield a crown. 
The next figure is the duty-mark, indicating the receipt of duty, 
and this is the head of Queen Victoria, or of the reigning sover- 
eign. All makers pay duty and are registered, and their work is 
assayed by the office. The assays of gold are proved by counter- 
part at the royal mint once a year. Duty was paid very early in 
the cighteenth century, if not before, but the king’s head was not 
struck till 1784. It is a permanent mark, and may it be long 
before we have to change it ! 
In 1697 an unwise Act softened the standard metal and changed 
for a time the stamps. It orders that silver of a superior purity 
shall be used, and that to distinguish the new quality from the 
old the leopard’s head shall no longer be used, and that a lion’s 
head erased and a figure of Britannia shall take its place. This 
Act, so far as it affected silver, was repealed in 1720. When it 
was passed it was related that all the provincial offices were dead, 
They had always been of inferior credit to London, because 
