Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/311

 ON Tin-] ASSAY MAKKS ON GOLD AND SILVER I'LATK. S:}.") work, sell, or excliangc any plate or ware of gold less in fineness than 22 carats ; and that he use no sother, ainell, or other stuffing more than is necessary for finishing the same, and that they take not above 12 pence for the ounce of gold, be^'ond the fiishion, more than the buyer shall be allowed for the same at the Queen's Mint. Nor any wares of silver less in fineness than 11 oz. 2 dwts., nor take above the rate of 12 pence for the lb. Aveight of silver, above the fashion, more than the buyer shall be allowed for the same at the Queen's ]Iint. Nor put to sale any ware before he hath set his own mark on so much thereof as may con- veniently bear the same. And if after April 20th any gold or silver wares shall be touched for good by the w^ardens or masters of the mystery, and there shall afterwards be found fraud or deceit therein, the warden shall pay forfeit the value of the thing so marked. A.D. 1624, 21st James I., cap. 28 — Repealed portions of the 28th Edward I., 37th Edward III., and 2nd Henry VI. A.D. 1697, 8 & 9 William III., cap. 7. — In order to prevent the silver coins of the realm being made into plate, it was enacted that after the 25th March, 1697, no worker of plate should make any article of silver less in fineness than 11 oz. 10 dwts. in every pound troy, nor sell any article made after that day, but of that standard, and until it had been marked as followeth, viz. — with the worker's mark to be expressed by the tivo first letters of his surname. The marks of the Mystery or Craft of the Goldsmiths, which instead of the leopard's head and the lion, shall for this plate be the figure of a Lion's head erased, and the figure of a woman commonly called Britannia, and a distinct and variable mark to be used by the warden of the same Mystery to denote the year in which such plate is made. A.D. 1700, 12 William III., cap. 4. — For the convenience of goldsmiths, the several cities of York, Exeter, Bristol, Chester, and Norwich, where mints had lately been erected for coining the silver monies of the kingdom, were by Act of Parhament appointed for the assaying and marking of wrought plate, and Goldsmiths' Companies were thereby incorporated in each for that purpose. — No goldsmiths were to make plate less in fineness than the standard of the kingdom, nor to sell any article until marked as following : — " the worker's mark to be expressed by the tico first letters of