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The row of small stamped marks on gold and silver, and what each position in the row tells you.
Also known as: Hallmark, Silver marks, Marks on a ring, Tiny stamps on jewellery
A UK hallmark is a short row of tiny punched marks, and each one answers a different question: who made it, how pure it is, which office tested it, and when. Reading them in order turns an anonymous piece into a dated, attributed one — which is why the system has run continuously since 1300.
A row of small marks struck into precious metal by an independent assay office after the metal has been tested, recording the sponsor, the fineness, the office and — where struck — the year.
Contexts: Jewellery
Three marks are compulsory in the United Kingdom: the sponsor's or maker's mark, the fineness (purity) mark, and the assay office mark. The date letter has been optional since 1998, so its absence does not indicate a problem.
United Kingdom · Date letter optional from 1998
A statutory consumer-protection scheme with criminal penalties rather than a maker's decoration: describing an unhallmarked article as precious metal is an offence under the Hallmarking Act 1973.
United Kingdom
Running continuously in Britain since 1300, which makes it among the oldest consumer-protection measures still in operation and the reason a dated eighteenth-century spoon can be attributed precisely.
From 1300
A short row of very small stamped marks, each set inside its own outlined shield or shaped punch, struck into the metal.
The fineness mark is one of the three compulsory marks in the row.