Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/179

 'Eit ^rcfiacological SiournaK JUNE, 1852. ON THE ASSAY MARKS ON GOLD AND SILVER PLATE. Every person who is possessed of an article of gold or silver l)late has most probably observed a small group of marks stamped on some part of it. Few, however, have, I believe, regarded them in any other light than as a proof that the article so marked is made of the metal which it professes to be, and that the metal itself is of a certain purity. And this is, in fact, the real ultimate object and intention of these marks ; but besides this, the archaeologist can deduce from them other important and interesting information, as by them he can learn the precise year in which any article bearing these marks was made. It is, therefore, to these marks that I am about to direct attention, with a view to elucidate their history, and peculiar meaning. There are no articles, in the manufacture of which such extensive frauds can be committed in so small a compass as in those made of the precious metals ; and there are no frauds more difficult to be discovered by ordinary persons, since it is only by a minute chemical examination that they can be detected ; and but few persons have either the skill or means to perform the necessary operation. This difficulty of detection, and the consequent probable escape from it, have at all times been an inducement to commit such frauds. This we find confirmed in the old story of Hiero's Golden Crown, which, upon the King entertaining suspicions of the fineness of the metal, was referred to Archimedes, who, being well skilled in mechanics and hydrostatics, used the means with which he was most familiar, and detected the fraud by means of the specific gravity of the metal instead of by a chemical analysis, at the time not understood. Those early times do not concern our present inquiry, VOL. IX. s