My Commitment to Hallmarking

When it comes to manufacturing jewellery and silverware, precious metals (silver, palladium, gold and platinum) 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, subject to the following weight exemptions:

Silver: mandatory for items above 7.78 grams

Gold: mandatory for items above 1 gram

Palladium: mandatory for items above 1 gram

Platinum: mandatory for items above 0.5 grams

Iain Sainsbury Designs is registered with the Edinburgh Assay Office, ensuring my precious metal jewellery is compliant with the UK’s hallmarking regulations. All stock is subject to an internal confirmation process to ensure it meets the UK’s hallmarking regulations before it is dispatched to our customers.

(For articles that are below the UK hallmarking Act’s mandatory weight for hallmarking Iain Sainsbury Designs operates a separate due diligence process which involves periodic voluntary testing of items that fall below the mandatory weight to ensure they meet the minimum fineness requirement.)

All of my pieces which contain precious metals are sent to the Edinburgh Assay Office for independent analysis and hallmarking, regardless of weight

In jewellery precious metals are not used in their purest forms instead they are mixed with other metals like zinc and copper, resulting in a mixture which is called, an alloy, this is done to give greater strength, durability or a particular colour to the metal.

It is not possible to discern by sight or by touch how much precious metal, if any, is present in an alloy. It is therefore a legal requirement, in the UK, to hallmark all articles consisting of gold, silver or platinum (subject to certain exemptions) if they are to be described as such.

Precious metal is expensive.

If you buy an item which contains less precious metal than it should, then you are being cheated, the hallmark is your guarantee so you know what you are buying.

It is an offence under the UK Hallmarking Act 1973 for any person in the course of trade or business to:

• describe an un-hallmarked article as being wholly or partly made of gold, silver or platinum

• supply or offer to supply un-hallmarked articles to which such a description is applied

Every goldsmith has a different makers mark mine is shown below, it is three diamonds with my initials ISS inside: