Hallmark on Your Jewellery

You may have noticed that all of my jewellery has a little hallmark stamped on the metal. It’s either on the inside of the ring, behind the earrings and pendants or on more intricate pieces somewhere tangled between seaweeds. It is interesting to examine them as each mark has a different meaning behind it, but how to know what mark means what? That’s why I wanted to write this post as an explanation of each symbol and the historical background of it.

In the UK it is a legal requirement to have all work in precious metal hallmarked (over a certain weight).  Jewellery weighing at over 1g of gold and over 7.78g of silver must be checked and hallmarked at Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office. I use the London Assay office as this is where I live and work, but there are few more of them around the country. London Assay Office is the oldest in the UK and dates back to the 14^th century, when hallmarking began. You can read more about the history of hallmarking on the London Assay Office’s website.

The hallmark shows the purity of the precious metal, it also tells us where and when in the country it was hallmarked and most importantly by who.

Let’s have a closer look and examine this silver cuff. It has been gold plated, but the hallmarks do not reflect on it as it’s a very small amount of gold.