Jewellery hall marking service, gold hallmark services

Courtesy: Jewellery hall marking service, gold hallmark services

United Kingdom

The assay office marks – from left to right, the leopard’s head of London, the anchor of Birmingham, the Yorkshire rose of Sheffield, and the castle of Edinburgh. The assay office marks are no longer an indicator that an item was assayed in the city, or in the UK.

Offshore hallmark used by Birmingham Assay Office’s subsidiary in India. Precious metal objects assayed and marked outside of the UK must carry a mark which distinguishes them from items assayed in the UK.

The Hallmarking Act 1973 made Britain a member of the Vienna Convention as well as introducing marking for platinum, a recognised metal under the convention. All four remaining assay offices finally adopted the same date letter sequences. In 1999 changes were made to the UK hallmarking system to bring the system closer into line with the European Union. Note that under this latest enactment, the date letter is no longer a compulsory part of the hallmark.

A legislative reform order (LRO) came into effect on 8 February 2013 giving UK assay offices the legal right to strike hallmarks outside of UK territory. In July 2016 Birmingham Assay Office began striking Birmingham hallmarks in Mumbai, India and further offshore offices are likely to be established. In March 2018 the British Hallmarking Council announced that UK assay office marks struck offshore must be distinguishable from those struck in the UK. It is likely that an ‘offshore’ assay mark will have to be added to signify that the item was not assayed in the UK. Only London and Edinburgh assay offices now strike marks exclusively in the UK.

As it now stands, the compulsory part of the UK hallmark consists of the sponsor or maker’s mark, the assay office mark, and the standard of fineness (in this case silver, 925 parts in 1,000).

These are shown in the top of the two example hallmarks. The bottom example shows the extra marks that can also be struck, the lion passant, indicating Sterling silver, the date mark (lowercase a for the year 2000), and in this example, the ‘Millennium mark’, which was only available for the years 1999 and 2000. The bottom example bears the Yorkshire rose mark for the Sheffield Assay Office.

The Hallmarking Act was amended in July 2009 to include palladium from January 2010.

Switzerland

Although hallmarking in the Swiss territories dates back to Geneva in the fifteenth century, there was no uniform system of hallmarking in Switzerland until 1881. Before that time, hallmarking was undertaken at the local level by the Swiss cantons. With the introduction of Federal hallmarking laws starting in 1881, increased uniformity was established.

Netherlands

The Netherlands, who are members of the International hallmarking Convention, have been striking hallmarks since at least 1814. Like many other nations, the Netherlands require the registration and use of Responsibility Marks, however, perhaps somewhat unusual, there is a book published entitled “Netherlands’ Responsibility Marks since 1797” (in three volumes and in the English language) illustrating all the responsibility marks registered there since that time. This is significant since producers that exported precious metal goods to the Netherlands would have been required to register their marks.

The Dutch government markets their assay services/office as the “Jewellery Gateway in and to Europe.” The Netherlands’ hallmarks are also recognized in other EU countries and thus can be sold in Austria, France, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom without further testing. The Netherlands’ hallmarks are also recognized in Belgium, Denmark, Finland and Sweden, which have voluntary hallmarking systems.

One of the two Dutch assay offices, WaarborgHolland b.v., is located in Gouda between the Amsterdam and Rotterdam airports. The other one is located in Joure, called Edelmetaal Waarborg Nederland b.v. The Netherlands recognises platinum, gold, silver and palladium as precious metals.