| Hallmarking puzzles most people. They don't | | | | half a gram.This is to save costs - |
| know what the symbols stand for or why | | | | hallmarking can be expensive. |
| jewellery has to be hallmarked. When our | | | | |
| customers ask about hallmarked silver and we | | | | So how do jewellers get a hallmark? Well , |
| tell them that ours is "pure silver , 999 | | | | you buy some silver or gold , make something |
| standard" they look puzzled because most | | | | with it and if the final piece is over 7.78 |
| people assume that sterling silver is the | | | | grams or whatever , you have to send it off |
| "ultimate" standard and can't understand that | | | | to the Assay Office of your choice. In the UK |
| there are higher grades of silver than | | | | you can choose from London , Birmingham , |
| sterling. We usually have to take down our | | | | Sheffield or Edinburgh. They are all |
| hallmarking poster and give a sermon on | | | | independent and actively "tout" for business. |
| hallmarking! | | | | We deal with Birmingham but have had reps |
| | | | from other Assay Offices visit us at Trade |
| Amazingly , hallmarking has been around since | | | | Shows and try to charm us... |
| early times. Edward 1 of England passed an | | | | |
| act in 1300 establishing sterling silver and | | | | You have to register with an Assay Office and |
| making marks on each piece of jewellery with | | | | have your own mark and leave your stamp with |
| a punch compulsory. | | | | them. In addition , every time you sell your |
| | | | jewellery , even in a street market , you |
| So how can you tell if your jewellery is | | | | have to display an Assay Office poster. It's |
| hallmarked? You'll probably need a magnifying | | | | not unknown for Trading Standards officials |
| glass like the ones you've seen jewellers | | | | to visit exhibitions to check your status and |
| with , stuck in their eyes as they closely | | | | see if you are complying with the act. |
| examine a piece of jewellery. If you can only | | | | |
| see a mark saying "925" then that's not a | | | | The main thing to remember about the hallmark |
| hallmark in the UK. It's just a "control | | | | is that the numbers (eg 925 ) are out of a |
| mark" put there by the manufacturers to | | | | thousand so the higher the number , the |
| indicate that they think it's sterling | | | | better the grade of metal. With sterling |
| silver. But to comply with the law there has | | | | silver , this means that 75 parts out of a |
| to be a mark made by the Assay Office. In | | | | thousand is not silver - it is copper , which |
| the UK this will be a mark with 3 symbols : | | | | is added to make the pure silver easier to |
| firstly a mark (say 999 ) denoting the type | | | | work with by hardening it. Pure silver is |
| of metal and its quality , secondly the | | | | quite soft. Most of the silver we work with |
| maker's mark (ours is JC ) and finally the | | | | is 999 - fine pure silver which is quite a |
| year of marking. | | | | different colour to sterling silver because |
| | | | there is nothing added to it. |
| But even if there's no proper hallmark , | | | | |
| don't worry! Your jewellery could be too | | | | With gold , much more base material is added. |
| light to be hallmarked. Most silver jewellery | | | | 9 carat gold for instance is hallmarked 375 |
| is very light - earrings , for instance. If | | | | because it is only 37.5% gold. 18 carat is |
| silver is less than 7.78 grams it doesn't | | | | 75%. as you can imagine pure gold is very |
| have to be hallmarked. Gold less than 1 gram | | | | expensive and you can see why it has to be |
| is exempt and with platinum it's less than | | | | diluted! |