It is obvious that in the present volume only a limited number of marks can be illustrated, but the author has given typical examples covering the London marks, which are the most important, and a few examples from most of the provincial assay offices as well as from Scotland and Ireland. These will be found in the Appendix (pp. 347-409). London The Goldsmiths’ Company of London has an honourable and ancient history and must be regarded as the leading spirit in regard to hall-marks. It is admitted that, from a public point of view, the hall-marks stamped on silver by the various assay offices have a very definite meaning. “Our hall-marks afford a guarantee of value to which, it is not to be wondered at, considerable importance attaches, since these goods may safely be regarded as an investment.” The true function of the Goldsmiths’ Company is a protective one--protective in the interests of honest traders, protective in the interests of public buyers. We suggest that they might perform an educational service by throwing open their assay office to public inspection. Neither the Royal Mint nor the Bank of England may be said to be an inaccessible holy of holies. The assaying of silver and gold is a process which affects the pocket of the public to a large extent. As custodians of historic archives of no insignificant value, there is no reason why such records should not be as readily accessible to the general student as are the papers in the Public Record Office which divulge bygone State secrets. Possibly if the assaying were placed under Government supervision, as has so often been strongly advocated, these things might come to pass. In regard to data undoubtedly the Goldsmiths’ Company can claim an ancient record. They are proudly jealous of their reputation and rightly anxious to guard the public interest. There is no doubt that “the laws of hall-marking, scattered as they are over a multitude of statutes, are highly technical, and not the least necessary reform is their consolidation.” The Goldsmiths’ Company was once a trade guild, but this is the twentieth century, and they exist solely in the public interest. To-morrow they could be swept aside by an Act of Parliament, and all silver could be assayed and stamped at the Royal Mint or by Government assayers.