Standard Silver

Hallmarking of silver and gold jewelry

Punching jewelry

Hallmarking puzzles most people. They do not know what symbols stand for or why jewelry should be stamped. When our customers are punched ask questions about money and we say that our country is "pure silver, 999 standard" they look puzzled because most people assume that sterling silver is "ultimate" standard and not can not understand that there are higher grades of silver than sterling. We usually take our displays of punching and give a sermon on punching!

Surprisingly, Punching has been around since time immemorial. Edward 1 of England adopted a law in 1300 establishing the sterling silver and make marks on each piece of jewelry with a punch required.

So how can you tell if your jewelry are punched? You'll probably need a magnifying glass like the ones you've seen with jewelers, glued to their eyes as they closely examine a piece of jewelry. If you can not see a sign saying "925", then this is not a trademark in the United Kingdom. It's just a mark of "control" asked by manufacturers to indicate that they think it is sterling silver. But to comply with the law, there must be a mark made by the Office of Assay. In the UK it would be a brand with 3 symbols: first mark (say 999) indicating the type of metal and its quality, the other brand Manufacturer (ours is JC) and finally the year of marking.

But even if there is no hallmark, do not worry not! Your jewelry could be too light to be punched. Most silver jewelry is very light – earrings, for example. If money is less than 7.78 grams, it need not be punched. Yet less than 1 gram is exempt and platinum is less than half a gram.This is to save costs – punching can be costly.

So how to get a feature jewelers? Well, you buy a certain quantity silver or gold, do something with it and if the last part is over 7.78 grams or whatever, you must send it to the Office mix of your choice. In the UK, you can choose to London, Birmingham, Sheffield and Edinburgh. They are all independent and active "everything" for businesses. We deal with Birmingham, but have had representatives of other offices Assay visit us during fairs and try to charm us …

You must register with an assay office and having your own brand and leave your stamp with them. In addition, each time you sell your jewelry, even in a market street, you must display a poster Assay Office. It is not unknown for Trading Standards officials to visit the exhibitions to check your status and see if you conformed to the law.

The main thing to remember the brand is that the numbers (eg 925) are out of a thousand, so the higher the number, the better the quality of metal. With sterling silver, which means that 75 parts per thousand is not money – it is copper, which is added to pure silver to make it easier to work the cure. Pure silver is very soft. Most of the money we work with 999 – pure fine silver which is totally different sterling silver, because there is nothing added.

With gold, much of basic equipment is added. 9 carats, for example, is hallmarked 375 because only 37.5% gold. 18k is 75%. As you can imagine the pure gold is very expensive and you can see why it should be diluted!

For examples of gold jewelry and silver jewelry Zinnia visit site

www.zinniajewellery.co.uk

About the Author

John Cartman is the co-owner of Zinnia Jewellery and sells gold and silver jewellery at fairs and exhibitions in the UK.
Copyright J.Cartman 2008
www.zinniajewellery.co.uk

Sophie Tseung and Jared Parnell – Ballroom Standard (Silver Medal)