Whether looking to buy or sell silver, an understanding of the hallmarks on silver will help an individual to ascertain the quality, age and purity of the item in question. Here is a consideration on the key hallmarks for silver which may be encountered on English silver, including silver antiques and silver jewellery.
Buying Silver: The Hallmarking Act 1973
The hallmarks on silver are designed to protect purchases of items of silver from fraud, whilst there are numerous items of legislation dealing with the hallmarking of precious metals it is the Hallmarking Act 1973 that is the most relevant to the contemporary buyer of silver.
- Consist – The Hallmarking Act 1973 stipulates that a set of hallmarks on silver must consist of a maker’s mark, the standard mark, an assay mark and a date letter.
- Weight – The Hallmarking Act 1973 decrees that all items of silver weighing more that 7.8g must be hallmarked.
When buying or selling silver one should look for the following hallmarks:
- The Marker’s Mark – Each producer of English silver is required to have a registered maker’s mark, the mark will usually consist of the initials of the maker using an initial from the forename and surname of the maker.
- The Date Letter – Every item of English silver will contain a date letter which can be looked up in a book of relevant tables to ascertain the date of a piece. Since 1975 the date letters of all assay offices in England have operated a synchronised cycle of date lettering.
- Assay Mark – Each of the assay offices operating within England will stamp a tested piece with the mark of the office. The most common marks are an anchor representing Birmingham, a rose representing Sheffield and a leopards head representing London.
- Standard Mark – The standard mark indicates the purity of the silver used in the piece. There are two standards, the lion passant is used on sterling silver, this is silver with a purity of 92.5% or more. The Britannia mark is used on silver which is of the higher Britannia standard, here the silver content must be a minimum of 95.8% or higher.
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