United States
In the United States, no national assaying system was ever adopted, although the city of Baltimore did maintain its own assay office between 1814 and 1830. Prior to the general adoption of sterling silver as the standard of purity in 1868, silver was generally obtained from the melting of coins. Since these could vary considerably in purity, from around .750 millesimal fineness to around .900, silver known as "coin silver" varies in purity. Silver at that time was sometimes marked "COIN" or "PURE COIN", but can also be without a standard mark altogether. After the adoption of the sterling standard, pieces were marked with "STERLING", the number "925" or the notation "925/1000".
The United States also had no date marking system. Because of this, some companies within the U.S., such as Tiffany and Gorham, adopted their own date marking systems.
While American manufacturers did not apply assay marks, city marks or date marks, they did (and still do) apply a maker's mark. For example, pieces from the Gorham company could be identified by a Lion Passant (or Lion Rampant, depending on the year), an anchor and the letter "G". The letters "T. and Co." indicated a piece manufactured by Tiffany and Company. These stamps were as unique as today's logos, and disputes often arose when one company copied another's stamp.
The difficulty with hallmarking systems other than those of the United Kingdom and Ireland is that in most cases one cannot pinpoint the manufacture to a specific year, but instead to a range of years during which the company or silversmith was in business. Many larger companies did put out yearly catalogs, however, and these, coupled with patent dates, can often be used as a reference to narrow down the date of a specific piece; some individuals make a living doing research on the history of specific sterling pieces.
Read more about this topic: Silver Hallmarks
Famous quotes related to united states:
“Of all the nations in the world, the United States was built in nobody’s image. It was the land of the unexpected, of unbounded hope, of ideals, of quest for an unknown perfection. It is all the more unfitting that we should offer ourselves in images. And all the more fitting that the images which we make wittingly or unwittingly to sell America to the world should come back to haunt and curse us.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)
“Printer, philosopher, scientist, author and patriot, impeccable husband and citizen, why isn’t he an archetype? Pioneers, Oh Pioneers! Benjamin was one of the greatest pioneers of the United States. Yet we just can’t do with him. What’s wrong with him then? Or what’s wrong with us?”
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“... the yearly expenses of the existing religious system ... exceed in these United States twenty millions of dollars. Twenty millions! For teaching what? Things unseen and causes unknown!... Twenty millions would more than suffice to make us wise; and alas! do they not more than suffice to make us foolish?”
—Frances Wright (1795–1852)
“The United States is the only great nation whose government is operated without a budget. The fact is to be the more striking when it is considered that budgets and budget procedures are the outgrowth of democratic doctrines and have an important part in developing the modern constitutional rights.... The constitutional purpose of a budget is to make government responsive to public opinion and responsible for its acts.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
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—R.W. ‘Tiny’ Rowland (b. 1917)