Dealers Hallmarks

Protecting Online Jewellery Shoppers

Platinum, gold, palladium and silver are the only four metals that can be hallmarked in the UK. These hallmarks indicate the metal, its purity percentage and where and when it was hallmarked. The 1973 Hallmarking Act makes it unlawful to describe an item over a certain weight as gold, silver, platinum or palladium without an independently applied hallmark.

When it comes to manufacturing jewellery and silverware, precious metals are rarely used in their purest form. Instead, they are usually alloyed with lesser metals to achieve a desired strength, durability and colour. It is not possible to detect the precious metal content of an item by sight or by touch. It is therefore a legal requirement to have items consisting of silver, palladium, gold or platinum independently tested and then hallmarked before they can be described as such. Items must bear a hallmark at point of sale and follow these simple rules:

1. All silver articles weighing more than 7.78 grams must be hallmarked

2. All gold articles weighing more that 1 gram must be hallmarked

3. All platinum articles weighing more than 0.5 grams must be hallmarked

4. All palladium articles weighing more than 1 gram must be hallmarked

For articles that are below the UK hallmarking Act's mandatory weight for hallmarking.

*** Charlie’s Charms is NOT registered with an Assay Office as currently no materials sold are defined as precious metals ***

Our plated fashion jewellery items include:

1. Silver Plated: These are not hallmarked, as the primary metal is not precious metal.

2. Gold Plated on Silver: Where applicable, these will be hallmarked sterling silver. We do not use terms such as ‘vermeil’ or ‘clad’ on F Hinds jewellery as we believe these are misleading unless it is made clear that the item is plated.

3. Bonded Gold on Silver: These items contain a higher proportion of gold than gold plated jewellery, but we describe them in an equivalent way to make it clear that the core is sterling silver. Where applicable, these will be hallmarked sterling silver.

In all cases, all the precious metals will be of at least the minimum quality to be described as such, i.e. Sterling Silver (925) and 9ct Gold (375). If they are a higher fineness, this will be in the product description.

Fineness Mark

Fineness Mark i.e. the purity of the metal in parts per thousand:

1. Current gold standards: 9ct (375 per 1,000), 14ct (585 per 1,000), 18ct (750 per 1,000) and 22ct (916 per 1,000)
2. Current silver standards: sterling silver (925 per 1,000) and Britannia silver (958 per 1,000)
3. Current platinum standards: 950
4. Current palladium standards: 500 and 950