Hallmarking Guide - Dealers Notice

Hallmarking Guide

Hallmarks are markings stamped on precious metal items to indicate their purity, origin, and other relevant information. In the United Kingdom, hallmarking is a legal requirement for selling precious metal items. The hallmarking process involves the stamping or engraving of a series of marks that provide information about the metal's composition and the entity responsible for assaying and marking the item.

The UK hallmark consists of several components:

  1. Sponsor's Mark: This is a unique mark that identifies the company or person responsible for sending the item to an assay office for testing and hallmarking. This is seen as two or more letters in a shield.

  2. Fineness Mark: This indicates the precious metal and it's fineness (out of 1000). This features the fineness number in a shield specific to that precious metal. E.g 925 in an oval shield represents sterling silver. 

    • Assay Office Mark: This symbol represents the assay office where the item was tested and marked. Different cities in the UK have their own assay offices, each with a unique symbol.

    These hallmarking components are usually stamped in a small, discrete area of the precious metal item, such as the back of a piece of jewellery or the underside of a silverware item.

    The hallmarking system serves several purposes:

    • Ensuring Quality: Hallmarks provide consumers with assurance about the quality of the precious metal item they are purchasing.
    • Preventing Fraud: The hallmarking process helps prevent fraudulent practices like selling lower-grade metals as higher-grade ones.

    At Michael Jones Jeweller, all our new jewellery is hallmarked in line with the legal requirements.

    Some of our preowned jewellery may not have hallmarks and as such will have been tested for their purity - these details will be included in the product description.

    If you have any questions regarding the hallmarking of our products please contact us:

    by email: enquiries@michaeljonesjeweller.co.uk

    by telephone: 01604 632548

    or write to us at:
    Michael Jones Jeweller,
    One Gold Street,
    Northampton,
    NN1 1SA

     

    Hallmarking Dealrs Notice