Jewellery hall marking service, gold hallmark services

Courtesy: Jewellery hall marking service, gold hallmark services

Augmentations in France and England

A set of hallmarks on an English silver spoon. From left to right, the maker’s mark of George Unite, the date letter (1889), the Birmingham Assay Office mark, the lion passant and the monarch’s head tax-mark

• In 1355, individual maker marks were introduced in France. This concept was later mirrored in England in 1363, adding accountability to the two systems.
• In 1427, the date letter system was established in France, allowing the accurate dating of any hallmarked piece.
• In 1478, the Assay Office was established in Goldsmiths’ Hall. At this time, the date letter system was introduced in England. This was originally intended to be the mark of an official known as the Assay Master, who was sworn in every May. After being sworn in, the letter would advance to the next in the alphabet, regardless of whether the same individual continued to hold the post, so it came to be regarded simply as a date letter.
• In 1544 a lion passant was added to English marks, to bring the number up to four.
• In 1697, a higher standard of silver, known as the Britannia standard (95.83%, i.e. 23/24ths silver) was made compulsory in Great Britain to protect the new coinage which was being melted down by silversmiths for the silver. The Sterling standard (92.5%) was restored in 1720.
• In 1784, the United Kingdom began charging a tax on silverware, and a further mark was added to indicate this had been paid. The mark was the monarch’s head and continued to be used until 1890, when the tax was abolished
• Modern hallmarks
• Hallmark for gold
• In the modern world, in an attempt at standardizing the legislation on the inspection of precious metals and to facilitate international trade, in November 1972 a core group of European nations signed the Vienna Convention on the Control of the Fineness and the Hallmarking of Precious Metal Objects. Articles which are assayed and found by the qualifying office of a signatory country to conform to the standard, receive a mark, known as the Common Control Mark (CCM), attesting to the material’s fineness. The multi-tiered motif of the CCM is the balance scales, superimposed, for gold, on two intersecting circles; for platinum, a diamond shape and for silver a mark in the shape of the Latin letter “M”.
• This mark is recognized in all the other contracting states, including: Austria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine (see links below). Other nations monitor the activities of the convention and may apply for membership.
• Complete international hallmarking has been plagued by difficulties, because even amongst countries which have implemented hallmarking, standards and enforcement vary considerably, making it difficult for one country to accept another’s hallmarking as equivalent to its own. While some countries permit a variance from the marked fineness of up to 10 parts per thousand, others do not permit any variance (known as negative tolerance) at all. Many nations abide by the Vienna system and procedures are in place to allow additional nations to join the Vienna Convention. Similarly, with the consent of all the current member states, the terms of the convention may be amended.
• The most significant item currently up for debate is the recognition of palladium as a precious metal. Some member nations recognize palladium as a precious metal while others do not.