Take a look at your precious metal jewellery and you may find a hallmark symbol.
The ‘hall’ of the word hallmark, is simply the place where the metals are tested. When hallmarks were first founded they were engraved by a mutually trusted party, or a guardian of the craft. Today the marks have to be made by a recognised ‘Assay Office’.
There are four assay offices in the UK: London, Sheffield, Birmingham and Edinburgh.
Each has their own identifying symbol. London has the mark of a leopard head, Sheffield a rose, Birmingham an anchor and Edinburgh’s mark is a castle. Along with the assaying office symbol and the sponsor’s symbol, by law the item must be stamped with the “standard mark”, denoting the level of purity of the precious metal being used. There is also an option for jewellery manufacturers to have a date symbol added to the hallmark.
It is a legal requirement to hallmark jewellery containing over 1 gram of gold, over 7.78 grams of silver or over 0.5 grams of platinum; otherwise the piece cannot legally be sold in the UK as gold, silver or platinum.
Today the forging of a hallmark is a punishable offence by up to ten years in prison, but years ago it was considered treason and punishable by death!
