All of our silver jewellery is made from sterling silver and we guarantee this by making sure that every piece carries either a hallmark or convention mark complying with current UK and European standards.

Genuine sterling silver bears the stamp "925" which is usually found in an inconspicuous place on each item sold, such as near where the piece fastens or on the back of the item so it cannot be seen.

The 925 mark represents the fineness of the metal and stands for the composition of the metal being made of 92.5% silver alloy. The other 7.5% is made from another alloy, usually copper, and it is added to give silver the strength and durability to make jewellery. In its pure form, like other precious metals such as gold, silver is much too soft to make jewellery and other items that are worn or used constantly.

The 925 mark and other hallmarks are governed by national Assay Offices. There are four assay offices in the UK, based in Sheffield, London, Edinburgh and Birmingham. They accept all types of precious metal items to be hallmarked and each piece submitted will be tested and then stamped with the relevant marks to show it has been thoroughly inspected.

When an item is hallmarked in the UK it will have the following stamp marks applied.
A convention mark numbers that represent the fineness of the metal. For example:

• Silver will be stamped : 925
• Gold will be stamped : 375 (9ct gold) or 850 (18ct gold)
• Platinum will be stamped : 950.

All these numbers represent the percentage of the precious metal present in each alloy.

Makers stamp Hallmarks

This will contain the initials of the person or company that manufactured the item.

Assay office stamp Hallmarks

Each assay office has its own particular symbol to represent itself.

• Edinburgh - Castle
• Sheffield - Rose
• London - Lion Head
• Birmingham - Anchor

Date stamp Hallmarks

This is usually a letter of the alphabet and changes are made to the style so the exact year the piece was made can be identified.

The stamps together tie the maker, assay office and metal together and can pinpoint the year the piece was made very accurately. This is particularly useful and interesting to collectors of jewellery who like to know who made their pieces of jewellery and where it came from.

We recommend if you want to know more about hallmarking then the Bradbury book of hallmarks is very interesting as it explains further the history of hallmarking. It shows date letters and old assay office marks which can be used to pin point the origin of your jewellery items.

Alternatively visit www.thegoldsmiths.co.uk/assayoffice/currenthallmarks.htm