Potentiometric titration in 95% methanol (I = 0.1 mol dm Ϫ3 , Et 4 NClO 4 ) has been employed to investigate the effect of N-methylation and N-benzylation of 1,4,10,13-tetraoxa-7,16-diazacyclooctadecane 1 on the binding of all three rings to cobalt(), nickel(), copper(), zinc(), cadmium(), silver() and lead(). The results show that enhanced selectivity for silver() is exhibited by the di-N-benzylated derivative 3 while the analogous dimethylated derivative 2 discriminates for both silver() and lead(). The crystal structures of [Ag(1)]PF 6 , [Ag(2)]PF 6 , [Ag (3)]PF 6 and [Pb(1)(NO 3 ) 2 ] have been determined. In the silver complexes the NH hydrogens of 1 and the N-methyl and N-benzyl substituents of the dialkylated derivatives 2 and 3 were found to lie on the same side of the mean donor planes of the co-ordinated macrocycles ('cis' arrangements). Density functional theory has been employed to model the silver complexes in both their energy-minimised 'cis' and 'trans' configurations. In accordance with the X-ray evidence, the calculations predict that the 'cis' arrangement is the more stable in each case. The crystal structure of the lead complex of 1 shows a 'trans' arrangement of its NH groups.