Hallmarking
What is Hallmarking?
Hallmarking is the process of verifying and guaranteeing the precious metal content in jewellery items made from metals like gold, silver, platinum, or palladium. This is essential because these metals are often alloyed with others for specific qualities like durability and flexibility, making it impossible to determine their purity by sight or touch alone. In the UK, it's a legal requirement for items described as such to be hallmarked by an independent Assay Office. A Full UK Traditional Hallmark consists of three mandatory marks and two optional marks, providing buyers with assurance regarding the precious metal content of their purchase.
1. Sponsor's Mark (compulsory):
This is the registered mark of the company that submitted the article for hallmarking. The Sponsor will have chosen their shield and initials which are displayed within it.
2. Fineness Mark (Compulsory):
Tells you the precious metal content, expressed in parts per thousand.
3. Assay Office Mark (Compulsory):
Tells you which Assay Office tested and hallmarked the article, There are four Assay Offices in the UK, each one holds its own hallmark symbol. There were other Assay Offices which bear a different symbol but they have since closed. This does not affect your jewellery authenticity in any way.
4. Traditional Fineness Symbol (optional mark)
5. Date Letter (optional mark): Shows the year in which the article was hallmarked.
Exemptions Not Requiring a Hallmark Articles weighing less than the following will not carry a hallmark:Gold weighing less than 1 gramSilver weighing less than 7.78 gramsPlatinum weighing less than 0.5 gramPalladium weighing less than 1 gram
The International Convention on HallmarksThe International Convention on Hallmarks is an international treaty between contracting countries, which aims at facilitating the cross-border trade of precious metal articles. UK is a signatory to the International Convention. This means that UK Assay Offices can apply the Common Control Mark (additional optional mark) which will then be recognised by all member countries in the Convention. The member countries of the Convention are: Austria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom. For more information about the International Convention Marks, please visit any of the UK Assay Office websites.The Wild One Jewellery Hallmark bears not only authenticity of your jewellery, but it is representative of the pride, hard work and dedication that goes in to creating every single piece. All precious metal articles exceeding the legal required weight limit will have been tested and hallmarked where legally required at Sheffield Assay Office.The Hallmark recognisable as a piece of Wild One Jewellery will bear these symbols:The Sponsors mark, the Fineness mark, the traditional Fineness symbol (Lion or Crown) and the Assay Office mark (Sheffield/Yorkshire Rose).