Anchor (Birmingham hallmark)
The mark of the Birmingham assay office: the piece was tested and hallmarked in Birmingham.
How to read it
The UK’s Hallmarking Act lists an anchor as the mark of the Birmingham assay office, and Chaffers’s 1922 list of assay office marks gives the same. Jackson notes that gold assayed at Birmingham has carried the same marks as London gold, except that the anchor takes the place of the leopard’s head.
Also searched as: anchor hallmark, Birmingham assay office mark.
A stamp is a claim about the metal, made by whoever struck it. This page says what each mark means under the rules that define it; it doesn’t test or value anything.
More jewellery marks
Sources
- Hallmarking Act 1973, Schedule 2: Approved Hallmarks, Hallmarking Act 1973 (c. 43), Sch. 2, legislation.gov.uk (The National Archives), Sch. 2, Pt. I, para. 1
- Hall Marks on Gold & Silver Plate (Chaffers, 1922), William Chaffers, Hall Marks on Gold & Silver Plate, 1922 edition, Internet Archive (scan), Assay office marks
- English Goldsmiths and Their Marks (Jackson, 1905), Charles James Jackson, English Goldsmiths and Their Marks, 1905, Internet Archive (Cornell University Library scan), Marks on Birmingham gold
Last reviewed September 27, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research