Daily AncestorAssayer
An assayer tested ores and metals to learn how much gold, silver or other metal they held, for miners, mints and government assay offices.
To assay is to test the purity or content of a metal. In the 1800s U.S. assay offices, tied to the government mints, took in bullion deposits from the public and from mining prospectors in the western territories.
The 1900 census told enumerators to return a chemist, assayer, metallurgist or other scientific person by his own distinct title, so the word is written plainly in census returns.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1870 to 1910 census
Thos. Reid, 44, Assayer, Scotland
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Assayer." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/assayer. Last checked 2026-10-10.