Hallmarking is a legal requirement here in the UK when it comes to precious metals. This is your guarantee that the items you are purchasing are genuine, high quality platinum, silver, sterling silver, or gold. The following are the only exemptions to this requirement as they fall under the legal weight threshold.
0.5 grams for Platinum
1 gram for Gold
7.78 grams for Silver
Sterling Silver Jewellery requires a hallmark if the article weighs over 7.78 grams, as detailed Under the 1973 UK Hallmarking Act. This requires the goods to be sent off and hallmarked by one of the UK’s Hallmarking Offices.
The majority of our products are under this threshold so do not have a hallmark, instead they will have a 925 stamp, this is often a small stamp and can sometimes be in an obscure place e.g. on the long tail of a fishhook, on chains it appears on the quality tag between the chain and the clasp. It may require some searching for. Although be aware that some items are not stamped where there is no suitable place and the stamping will lead to the detriment of the finished item, e.g. sterling silver beads.
Sterling silver (or STS) is an alloy of silver containing 92.5% by mass of silver and 7.5% by mass of other metals, usually copper. The sterling silver standard has a minimum millesimal fineness of 925. Fine silver (99.9% pure) is generally too soft for producing functional objects; therefore, the silver is usually alloyed with copper to give it strength but preserving the ductility and beauty of the precious metal.
