Home / Proof Marks / British proof — the circle, "not English made"

British proof — the circle, "not English made"

British proof marks · 1925-1954.
What it looks like
A proof mark enclosed in a small circle.
Where it is on the gun
Barrel flats.
Date range
1925-1954.

What it tells you

What this mark authorises you to say

The barrel was not made in England. It is a country-of-origin disclosure built into the proof mark itself, and it is the reason a Belgian or German gun proved in London or Birmingham carries a circled stamp where a British gun carries a bare one.

What it does not tell you

What this mark does NOT say

It is not a quality judgement and it is not a proof in its own right — it qualifies the proof mark it sits inside. Its absence proves nothing either way, since the circle was only used from 1925.

Sources for this page

Every claim above is attributed. The class of source is shown with each one, because a national proof house and an anonymous forum table are not the same evidence — and on proof marks the difference matters.

Reading marks to identify and date a gun

Proof marks name the test and the era. The serial number, where a maker published a browsable chart, can name the year. The lookup cites the threshold behind every result.

Open the serial number lookup

Other british proof marks

Mark descriptions observed and verified 2026-10-14. Proof marks are stamped by hand on guns up to a century old; a photographed stamp and a description in a book are not the same evidence. If a mark on your gun does not match anything here, that is a real answer — see the notes on unidentified marks.