A SUMMARY OF THE HALLMARKING REGULATIONS IN THE UK

Under the Hallmarking Act 1973, all items being sold as gold, silver or platinum in the UK, unless they come within the Exemptions, must be hallmarked to confirm that they meet the legal standard for precious metal content. This cannot be done by the manufacturer or importer; items must be submitted to one of the four UK Assay Offices for assay and hallmarking.

Put at its simplest, silver items that weigh more than 7.78 grams, gold items that weigh more than 1 gram and platinum items that weigh more than 0.5 gram must be hallmarked if they are intended for sale in the UK.

In the UK a Hallmark consists of three COMPULSORY MARKS which provide the following information:

• who made the article
• what is its guaranteed standard of fineness
• the Assay Office at which the article was tested and marked

For example:

AB Sponsor or maker	750 Standard	Anchor Assay Office

Sponsor's Mark

This identifies the person or company responsible for sending the article to the Assay Office using their unique identifying mark registered with one of the Assay Offices

Assay Office Mark

There are four British Assay Offices each identified by their own symbol

Birmingham

Edinburgh

London

Sheffield

Standard Marks

These show the standard of fineness,  which is the purity of the precious metal in parts per thousand. For example:

The background shape shows the metal (gold). The figure shows the article consists of 750 parts of gold by weight to 250 parts of other metals - 75% gold. This is equal to 18 carats (18 parts in every 24), the traditional way of describing gold purity.

Current Gold Standards

9 carat

14 carat

18 carat

22 carat

Fine

Current Silver Standards

Coin

Sterling

Britannia

Fine

Current Platinum Standards

ARTICLES OF TWO OR MORE PRECIOUS METALS
The hallmark applied is that of the least precious metal, which must be more than 50% of the weight of the article.

ARTICLES MADE OF PRECIOUS METALS AND OTHER MATERIALS
Small, working base metal parts are allowed and regulations on the use of base metals are made from time to time by the British Hallmarking Council.

Authorised parts in base metal must either be clearly distinguishable in colour from the precious metal or struck with the word "METAL" .

Base metals such as stainless steel are not considered to be distinguishable from silver, white gold or platinum.

Items which contain more than the minimum weight of precious metal, such as gemstone bracelets and necklaces which incorporate precious metal beads, must also be hallmarked (excluding the clasp unless it is permanently attached).

For more information on hallmarking, how to register your sponsor's mark and submit articles for hallmarking visit the London Assay Office website at www.theassayoffice.co.uk