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HALLMARKING

A Brief History of the Hallmark

Hallmarking has been around since the 14th century to regulate pieces made from silver and gold within the UK and protect consumers against fraud.  The stamps have a rich and charming history, with many individual hallmarks having come and gone over the years!

During the Middle Ages hallmarking was regulated by local governments and was performed by assayers.  In 1300, England saw the introduction of hallmarking for silver items by King Edward I which was instilled and carried out by “guardians of the craft”.  This later developed into a system which centred around the London Goldsmith’ Hall – giving its name to the term ‘hall’ marking.

It wasn’t until 1973 that the various laws were simplified and brought together to form the blanket Act we use today – The 1973 Hallmarking Act.  This Act is much more concise and easier to understand, while still retaining the tradition of the craft.

All that Glitters is not Gold!

Hallmarking is a real positive when it comes to buying a piece of jewellery from the UK as the strict regulations give you a guarantee as a consumer that your piece of jewellery is exactly what it says it is.

  • A hallmark is a set of component marks applied to articles of the precious metals gold, silver, palladium and platinum.
  • It means that the article has been independently tested.
  • It guarantees that it conforms to all legal standards of purity (fineness).
  • It guarantees provenance by telling us where the piece was hallmarked, what the article is made from, and who sent the article for hallmarking.

 The Full Traditional Hallmark comprises five marks:

  • Sponsor’s mark
  • Traditional fineness mark
  • Assay Office mark
  • Date letter mark

Unless otherwise stated, this is the standard mark applied to all our pieces of work.

Hallmarking and Beaton & Shott

It is compulsory for gold, palladium, platinum and silver pieces above a certain weight to be fully and independently hallmarked before they can be legally sold in the UK.  Hallmarks, by law, have to be applied to:

  • Gold pieces over 1 gram
  • Palladium pieces over 1 gram
  • Platinum pieces over 0.5 grams
  • Silver pieces over 7.78 grams

At Beaton & Shott we always go above and beyond for our customers, which is why we choose to give a full independently applied hallmark to every piece of customer jewellery that leaves our workshop (providing the hallmark can be applied without damage).

The stamp is always carried out externally by the UK Assay Office who ‘assay’ (test) every piece of jewellery in the UK, checking that it is the metal specified.  If it passes the test, it gets their special stamp of approval in the form of a hallmark.  This mark guarantees that your piece of jewellery has been independently tested for its quality, provenance and type of metal.

To explain it a little better, we’ve broken down the hallmark in our banner image for you here:

Our own ‘sponsor’ mark (also known as the Maker’s mark) is stamped first – this is PAS (the designer and maker of your jewellery, Paula Stephens) – so every piece can be immediately recognised as having been made by Beaton & Shott.

 

 Next, you have two markings that tell you more about the type of metal used in the piece.  Whether it be gold, palladium, platinum or silver, each has its own identifiable stamp.  Gold has a crown symbol, silver a lion passant, palladium has the helm of the Greek Goddess ‘Pallas Athena’ as its stamp and platinum has an orb & cross.

Now we’ve identified the metal itself, we need to know its quality or ‘fineness’ which comes from the numerical figure alongside the metal stamp.  This figure measures the amount of precious metal in the piece in parts per thousand.  For 9 carat gold this would be 375; 18 carat gold by comparison is 750 because there is a higher concentration of gold in the metal.

Precious metals are more often than not alloyed with other metals to improve their durability and alter their colours, e.g. white and rose gold.  This is where a hallmark can really help, as you may not be able to identify the metal make-up of an allowed metal so easily.

Each Assay Office in the UK has it’s own unique symbol so you can identify which of the four Offices each item has been hallmarked at: London (a leopard’s head), Birmingham (an anchor), Sheffield (the Yorkshire rose) or Edinburgh (a castle).  London’s leopard’s face is the stamp you will find on all of our pieces and is the oldest out of all the offices.

Usually, at the very end of the hallmark, is a letter which represents which year the piece of jewellery has been stamped in.  This is a non-compulsory mark, the date letter changes annually on 1st January and the font, case and shield shape all change each year so each can only indicate one specific year.  All date punches are destroyed at the end of the year.  The letter ‘v’ in lowercase represents the year 2020 and of course the letter ‘w’ will represent 2021.