The new standard was the only legal standard for silver plate from March 1697 till 1720, when the old standard was revived and the higher standard marks of the Britannia and the lion’s head erased were no longer compulsory. Silver plate then dropped to the same fineness as the coin of the realm. But if silversmiths desired to make silver of this higher standard they could do so, and such silver plate would receive the stamps at the assay offices, of the Britannia and the lion’s head erased. It is thus shown that the dates when silver plate must compulsorily bear the Higher Standard marks are between the years 1697 and 1720. The following note will be useful to collectors. A piece of silver marked with the figure of Britannia and the lion’s head erased may be an example falling under any of the following heads:-- 1. Assayed in London between 1697 and 1700, when London was the only office assaying silver plate. (It was illegal in England to make silver plate of a lower standard between 1697 and 1720.) 2. Assayed in London between 1701 and 1720. 3. Assayed at Chester, Exeter, York, and Norwich, between 1701 and 1720. 4. Assayed at Newcastle from 1702 to 1720. 5. Assayed at any of the assay offices (except Dublin; no Higher Standard silver being made in Ireland) after 1720 to the present day. Although such silver plate of the Higher Standard has not since been compulsory by law since 1720. The Britannia period is an intricate period in the study of silver plate, but the history underlying the Acts which governed the hall-marking at this period should appeal to the collector who wishes to endow his plate with historic interest. Without digressing too widely into economic questions which threatened to paralyse commerce and to destroy the allegiance to William III, it is of essential interest to the collector of old silver plate to realize the conditions which rendered the Higher Standard Mark of the Britannia and the lion’s head erased necessary to prevent financial disasters of considerable magnitude. The plate closet provides the historian with many of his facts. It was in the days of Charles I that the loyalists melted down their plate to be converted into coin of the realm. It was in William’s day that clippers of coins provided silver for the silversmith to fashion into his pleasing shapes. At what cost will be shown.