Hallmarking

The first UK Assay Office was Goldsmiths’ Hall, founded around 1300, and where the term “Hallmarking” originates, meaning “marked in Goldsmiths’ Hall”. Since then, there have been ten Assay Offices in the UK, and now there are four remaining Assay Offices in the UK:

Birmingham, London, Edinburgh and Sheffield.

Customers often tell me that a piece of jewellery they own has been hallmarked because it bears a 925 stamp mark. This is not a Hallmark. Any maker can purchase a stamp and punch it themselves. Peter and I had some of this stamped jewellery tested and the Assay office told us that there was some silver, but not much. They also told us that there was lead, mercury and nickel etc. in the mix.

A true Hallmark means that the Assay office (an independent assessor) has tested the metal and applied the appropriate guarantees in the manner of a Hallmark. These marks are added to the jewellery via hammering onto the piece or as in my case, using a laser.

A real Hallmark contains at least three marks on the jewellery.

1.  The first mark is the maker’s, or sponsor’s mark. The jeweller or importer chooses a unique mark that can be traced by the purchaser through the assay office records. The Goldsmith’s Company Assay Office (https://www.assayofficelondon.co.uk/other-services/trace-a-hallmark) provides tracing services. My marker’s mark includes ‘NHP’.

2. The second is the purity of the metal; for example 925 which means the silver is 92.5 per-cent silver and 7.5 per-cent other metals (could be copper for example).

3. The third is the office which has marked the piece. Birmingham (the Assay Office we use) uses the anchor as its mark.

4. Sometimes a fourth mark is used which indicates the year of Hallmarking.

The law is very clear about selling precious metals (gold, silver, platinum). Any silver item over 7.8 grams in weight must be hallmarked by the Assay office. An Assay sign must be displayed on the stall or in the shop. After making a piece, I weigh it and determine whether or not it must be Hallmarked. The weight of the piece means the weight of the metal. If a piece has a large stone but not much silver it needn’t carry a mark.

It is also difficult when I mix metals in my pieces. Any silver embedded into bronze, or attached in any way will not carry a hallmark. The Assay office refuses to Hallmark in these cases as it might cause confusion to the customer who might think the bronze had a silver content. I will say that the bird is silver (which it is) and the bird house is bronze…however, I cannot guarantee the silver content, as I cannot get the piece Hallmarked.

Hallmarking does not come cheaply. There are upfront costs to set up a Hallmark, as well as a cost for each piece I send to the office. I would love to be able to afford hallmarking everything I make, but this would add at least £5 onto the piece, and this is significant when the pendant for example is only £25. Most people find custom made jewellery expensive, especially as the silver price has skyrocketed. I try my best to keep my prices reasonable. However, anything of mine over the 7.8 grams of silver is always Hallmarked.