Behind the altar | Vol. 4 Hallmarking
WHAT IS HALLMARKING?
Hallmarking is the oldest form of consumer protection.
Here in the UK, when selling a piece of jewellery (or, ‘article’), if describing the content of the metal as silver, gold, platinum or palladium, there is a legal requirement to ensure the article has been hallmarked to reflect the description.
UK hallmarking can only be undertaken by one of the UK’s four Assay Offices — London, Birmingham, Edinburgh or Sheffield.
Hallmarking follows an independent assessment of quality and content, the process of which is to 'assay' — meaning to test and assess the precious metal content of an item.
WHY ARen’t all ARA PIECEs HALLMARKED?
The legal requirement to hallmark an article only applies to those over a certain weight, depending on the metal content —
Silver | 7.78 grams
Gold | 1.0 gram
Platinum | 0.5 grams
Palladium | 1.0 gram
Keeping certain pieces within these weights means they are exempt from the legal requirement for hallmarking, which in turn means they have a shorter turnaround time and will not incur the additional costs associated with hallmarking.
A SUSTAINABLE APPROACH TO HALLMARKING
MINIMISING CARBON FOOTPRINT
To minimise carbon footprint, I choose to send my articles to my closest Assay Office — the Sheffield Assay Office.
I have a unique mark registered at the Sheffield Assay Office which can be used to mark only pieces made by me. This mark is always accompanied by the distinctive Yorkshire rose as the Sheffield ‘Town’ mark (see more in ‘The Marks’).
LASER MARKING
The traditional mark is hand struck with a heavy metal punch.
As my pieces vary greatly in size and shape, several different punches would require creating to accommodate the different designs.
Instead, I opted to use a laser engraved mark. This is an electronic process and it means that the shape and size of the hallmark can be easily amended each time to suit the form of the particular article, resulting in less energy than would be required to produce multiple physical punches.
THE MARKS
You will always see at least three marks — the sponsor's (or maker’s) mark, the fineness mark and the assay office mark are all compulsory.
I. THE SPONSOR OR MAKER’S MARK
The first of three compulsory marks —
The sponsor or maker’s mark is unique to the Assay Office or to the individual maker or company; no two marks are the same.
This mark must feature at least two letters within a surround. The symbol I chose was the one I felt most closely resembled an altar or place for an offering.
The black is where metal will be removed, leaving the white raised comparatively.
II. METAL AND FINENESS (PURITY) MARK
The second compulsory mark —
This mark indicates the precious metal content of the article.
The fineness is indicated by a millesimal number (parts per thousand) and the metal type is indicated by the shape of the surround.
III. ASSAY OFFICE MARK
The final compulsory mark —
This mark indicates the particular Assay Office at which the article was tested and marked.
All Ara pieces bear the Yorkshire Rose — the mark of my closest Assay Office in Sheffield.
IV. TRADITIONAL FINENESS SYMBOLS
An optional mark —
Including the lion passant for 925 silver, the Britannia mark for 958 silver, the crown for gold, and the orb for 950 platinum.
V. THE DATE LETTER
Another optional mark —
Until 1999 the date letter was compulsory.
This is no longer the case, but it can be applied voluntarily in addition to the compulsory marks. The date letter changes once a year on January 1st.
AN EXAMPLE
From this example you can see that the article —
i) was made by me
ii) was made from no less than 925 sterling silver
iii) was marked at the Sheffield Assay Office in the year 2020
I hope you enjoyed a closer look at hallmarking.
If there’s ever anything you’d like me to explore as part of ‘Behind the altar’ please let me know.
Lx