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Government bodies, whether colonial, federal or of the individual states,
never had any control over gold and silversmiths and never stipulated purity
standards for the use of precious metals. Not even date letters for an
item were required.
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The cities of Boston and New York had their Societies or Guilds (similar
to the European guilds) in which the silversmiths themselves set the standards
for their own craft. Most likely other cities of the United States, too,
had similar organizations of silversmiths. In Baltimore, in fact, an assay
office was set up for precious metals, supervised by elected silversmiths.
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The marks on American historical silver are mainly those of the makers,
consisting either of a monogram or the silversmith's full name. Sometimes
this mark is complemented with the name of the place where the maker worked,
or a numeral indicating the purity of the precious metal employed.
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Since no date letter was required, an item can be dated more precisely
only by analyzing the decoration on it or by a stylistic appraisal of the
entire piece.
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Contemporary objects must have the maker's mark and the number of
purity, indicating precisely the purity of the metal with a tolerance of
004/1000. The mark "STERLING" or ''STERLING SILVER" indicates a purity
of 925/1000.
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When identifying American silver it is essential to ascertain precisely
and carefully the maker’s mark which, in this instance, is the sole reliable
indicator since, in many cases, English or Irish products were passed off
as American work. Before selling the item the falsifier, of course, removed
all the official marks, leaving only that of the maker.
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United
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of America