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[Dragonchampion]

Which should I use for the best can-opening? Stupid possessions... don't even get a legendary weaponsmith out of it. 

[Kamamura]

I guess hammers are stronger than maces, and silver > lead, so I would take the hammer.

[MythagoWoods]

Actually I believe lead is marginally, AKA hardly noticeable, better then silver for blunt weapons.  I'd use the lead mace for the sole fact of you made a mace out of lead.

[Alastar]

My money is on the silver hammer. Lead is only slightly more dense and considerably softer; hammers generally make for better can openers than maces.

[Minnakht]

The lead mace, hands down.

Lead is denser than silver. Only density matters when it's blunt weapons - silver is soft too, softer than iron and the like.

Also, it's an artifact.

Also, maces have twice the contact area of hammers, but also twice the size.

[Sarda]

Lead is juuuuuuuuuuuuuust barely denser, and maces suck, hard. Hammers are better canopeners. Silver hammer. And the artifact bonus doesn't really do all that much, IIRC.

[SirAaronIII]

The mace.
Now if it were a masterwork hammer, I'd go with the hammer.

[Urist Imiknorris]

For armor: hammer.
For unarmored: mace.

[ThrowerOfStones]

I'd be surprised if the Mace wasn't better, since by the numbers it should ONLY be better.

It's somewhat unclear to me why Hammers>Maces (as is often said, and I believe has been proven by dwarven science), since they do have twice the contact area but also twice the weight, which should balance out, or even be better since in theory it would wound a larger area with equal force.

But yeah, lead is denser, artifact is better. I'd put my money on the mace.

[Roderick Jaynes]

C'mon, make the best of the situation! Give the hammer to a dwarf and name him 'Maxwell'.

[gilesguy]

C'mon, make the best of the situation! Give the hammer to a dwarf and name him 'Maxwell'.

I was wondering how long we could go without making this pun...

[krenshala]

For armor: hammer.
For unarmored: mace.

I'd say this is probably how it will work out.

Hammer is works well against armored opponents due to the smaller contact area (it is designed to punch through armor and Toady seems to have done a good job modeling that behavior).  Maces are meant for blunt force trauma, and do OK against armored opponents (better than blades, not as good as hammers) but better against non-armored folks.

If they were both hammers/maces, or both artifacts, the decision would be much easier. I'd say the best thing to do is find two equal melee dorfs and equip them with the two weapons and then have them do some !!science!!. 

[dirty foot]

Designation    Description            Value Modifier     Weapon To-Hit/Armor Deflect Modifier
 Item Name    —                        1x                      1x       
-Item Name-    Well-crafted        2x       
+Item Name+    Finely-crafted      3x       
*Item Name*    Superior quality    4x       
≡Item Name≡    Exceptional          5x       
☼Item Name☼    Masterful             12x                      2x       
Unique name    Artifact             120x              3x


Taken from the wiki.

To add my opinion in, I hear people talk about how malleable metal isn't yet accounted for in figuring out its strength in weapons. I also hear that hammers are awesome because of their smaller hit box, this means that each hit with a hammer does more, with less work. This is despite lead being more dense.

Lastly, according to the wiki post above, you're going to hit 50% more often with the artifact--not 50% harder. I could have sworn it wasn't always like this, but I can't remember now.

[G-Flex]

you're going to hit 50% more often with the artifact--not 50% harder

This is probably incorrect. A 2x "weapon hit modifier" does not necessarily mean that you're hitting 50% (or 100%) more often; it depends on a lot of factors we don't necessarily know, many of them situational.

[nanomage]

i'd surely take the mace!
After all, even if it's weaker, it's an artifact lead mace, like the one in adom, it's rare and precious and it surely has some spikes isn't it? Just think of the possibilities!
And hammers? phew! any dwarf can pipeline =silver war hammers= by hundreds of thousands of bins.

ps. that said, goblins never show up in anything better than *iron mail shirt*, so i wouldn't call that "armoured opponent".
Blades, especially adamantine ones, slash them nicely into pieces.