In regard to the date letters the London Assay Office has consistently, with one exception, 1696, adhered to twenty letters in each alphabet, that is from A to U (omitting J). But the provincial offices were wofully erratic and exhibit a looseness and want of system in not adhering to the same arrangement of alphabets in succeeding periods. It is not necessary to follow these eccentricities in detail, a few examples will suffice. Newcastle from 1702 to 1720 employed the alphabet as follows:--A (1702), B (1703), D (1705), F (1707), M (1712), O (1716), P (1717), Q (1718), D (1719), E (1720). Some of these were used for more than one year. In the next two periods, 1721 to 1739 and 1740 to 1758, the alphabet ends at T. Later alphabets run to Z. Chester employed an alphabet sometimes ending in X, sometimes in V, and sometimes in U, and one series runs from A to Z (excluding J) from 1839 to 1863. The result of the somewhat chaotic alphabet marks has been to focus the attention of the collector too much on this particular side of the subject. The identification of marks, the outward symbols of time and place, have reduced the study of old silver to a somewhat lower plane than it should occupy by right. It is proper that such determining factors should have their place, but not the first place. There was a time when china collectors ignored paste and glaze and laid particular stress on marks, and it is a very happy accident that a great portion of English porcelain and much of English earthenware is unmarked. It has eventually led collectors to think for themselves and know something more of the technique and to learn to appreciate the artistic value of specimens of the potter’s art coming under their hand. The collector of old silver, however, cannot hope to escape from marks; they are an integral part of the subject, and coming as they do under the strict surveillance of the law, they offer protection to his investment and have the comforting assurance of gilt-edged security. There is nothing of the subtle speculation as to exact period which accompanies the acquisition of old furniture, nor is there the same element of chance which governs the operations of the picture collector. The hall-mark, the standard mark, the date mark, and the maker’s mark stamped with mechanical precision proclaim “with damnable iteration” the string of unalterable facts.