Do You Know Your Hallmarks?
WHAT IS A HALLMARK?
It is an essential, legal requirement for all UK jewellery described as precious metal that is over a certain weight to contain a hallmark. You can think of a hallmark as the DNA of your item, it tells you exactly what the piece is made from.
When buying a piece of jewellery characterised as silver, gold, platinum or palladium, you should consider checking the information on the hallmark. This is important because not every country has a legal requirement for jewellery to contain a hallmark. When buying jewellery in the UK you can rest assured that you know exactly what you're buying.
WHY SHOULD YOU CHECK FOR A HALLMARK?
Precious metal such as silver, gold, palladium, and platinum are not used in their purest form as their natural properties aren’t suitable for creating jewellery. To counteract this, they are mixed with more common base materials such as copper and zinc (and many more) to enhance it’s properties, making it suitable for crafting with. This is called an alloy.
The fineness of the alloy refers to the amount of precious metal it contains. This dramatically alters the cost and value of the piece which is where its hallmark becomes important.
The item's hallmark will confirm that the proportion of precious metal listed meets a legal standard. It also identifies where the item was tested, or assayed to be precise, and who submitted it for hallmarking.
WHAT IS ASSAYING?
The process of assaying is where one of the four assay offices measures the fineness of an alloy by weighting it, and then melting it down in a cupellation furnace to separate the alloying metals. This allows the resulting precious metal residue to be weighed where a comparison can be made between that and the original alloy.
This information then allows the fineness to be calculated. Sounds easy right? Once the assay process is completed the assay office will complete the hallmarking process.
You can spot a hallmark yourself, however, they are so small and hidden (so as not to detract from the design of the piece) that to clearly see it you will need a jeweller’s loupe. We recommend taking your jewellery item to a professional jeweller where they will be able to tell you all about its hallmark.
For a ring, you will most likely find the hallmark positioned on the inside of the band. On earrings, it will be more commonly spotted on the stem, for a pendant, inside the loop.
To find out more about UK hallmarking and what your hallmarks mean, you can speak to one of our specialists. Call us on 01234 630821 to book your appointment today. Alternatively you can email us at [email protected] or fill out the contact form on our contact page by clicking here.
