Now Live: The Chapman Hallmark Identifier

Reading about hallmarks? Now read your own. Our free tool walks you through the marks on your jewellery, mark by mark, no experience needed. Open the Hallmark Identifier.

Hallmarking Is Not a Nicety. It Is the Law.

Under the Hallmarking Act 1973 it is a criminal offence for anyone selling in the course of trade or business to describe an unhallmarked item as gold, silver, platinum or palladium, or even to offer it for sale as such. The exemptions are few and narrow, such as gold items under 1 gram and genuine pre-1950 antiques of proven fineness. The hallmark, struck by an independent UK assay office, is the law's own guarantee that the metal is exactly what the seller claims. That is why these marks are worth understanding, and why it is worth checking that your own gold carries them. Read your marks with the free Hallmark Identifier.

Why Real Marks Never Quite Match the Chart

Every reference chart shows one tidy drawing per year, but the marks on real jewellery were struck by hand-cut punches that varied more than any chart admits. The assay offices cut different punch sizes for rings, chains and watch cases; outline shapes drifted across a twenty-five year cycle; and decades of wear soften every edge. So when you compare your own gold against any chart, ours included, read the STYLE of the letter first: Gothic, Roman or script, capital or lowercase. The letter style dates a piece far more reliably than the exact shield around it, and knowing that puts you ahead of most of the trade. When a mark still will not settle, that is normal, not failure: work through it with the Hallmark Identifier or email us a sharp photo and we will read it for you, free.

Hallmarking Explained

Why we hallmark, and why the law says we must
Put a 9 carat gold chain beside an 18 carat one. Same colour, same shine, same weight in the hand. One holds twice the gold of the other. Nobody can tell them apart by looking. That includes us. The four UK Assay Offices put it in one sentence in their own published guidance: "It is not possible to detect by sight or by touch the platinum, gold, palladium or silver content of an item. It is therefore a legal requirement to hallmark all articles consisting of platinum, gold, palladium or... Read more...
Gold Hallmarks Across Europe: The Convention Mark and the National Systems
Gold Hallmarks Across Europe: The Convention Mark and the National Systems A gold hallmark is a promise about purity, but Europe makes that promise in two very different ways: through one international mark designed to be recognised across borders, and through a patchwork of national systems, each with its own symbols, laws and level of independent testing. The distinction matters whenever you buy, sell or value gold, because a stamp that guarantees purity in one country may be only a maker's own declaration in another. The Vienna Convention and the... Read more...
Why American Gold Has No Hallmark: The US Marking System Explained
Why American Gold Has No Hallmark: The US Marking System Explained Pick up a gold ring bought in Britain and you will usually find a row of tiny symbols: a sponsor's mark, a millesimal number such as 375 or 750, an assay office town mark and a date letter. An American gold ring is typically far plainer, often just "14K" and perhaps a set of maker's initials. The difference is not carelessness. It reflects two different ideas about how gold's purity should be guaranteed. Two philosophies: the assay office versus... Read more...
Gold Marking Across Asia and the Middle East: From Mandatory Hallmarks to the Gold Souk
Gold Marking Across Asia and the Middle East: From Mandatory Hallmarks to the Gold Souk Britain's hallmark is a single system, seven centuries old. Across Asia and the Middle East, home to the world's two largest gold markets (World Gold Council, Gold Demand by Country), the marks on a piece of gold follow very different rules. Some countries now enforce one of the strictest hallmarking regimes on earth, others rely on a single national standard, and in the Gulf gold is still weighed out at a daily price much as... Read more...
Look for the Hallmark: It's Your Guarantee
Look for the Hallmark: It's Your Guarantee In the UK it is illegal to supply or offer to supply any item described as gold, silver, platinum or palladium unless it is hallmarked, subject to the exemption weights below. A hallmark is the independent guarantee, applied by one of the four UK Assay Offices, that a precious metal is of the purity claimed. Exemption weights apply: silver 7.78g, gold 1g, palladium 1g, platinum 0.5g. Certain antique items may also be exempt. What a hallmark looks like A full UK hallmark is... Read more...
UK Gold Hallmark Reference: Check Your Own Gold
UK Gold Hallmark Reference: Check Your Own Gold Every genuine British gold hallmark is a short line of stamped symbols that, read together, tell you the purity, the office that tested it, and often the year. This is the practical reference: the tables you hold your own piece against. For the full explanation of how the system works, see our guide to the UK hallmarking system. 1. The gold fineness table Fineness is stamped as a number in an oval, in parts per 1000, and it maps directly onto the... Read more...
Gold Hallmarks Explained: The UK System
Gold Hallmarks Explained: The UK System A hallmark is the oldest form of consumer protection in Britain. Long before advertising standards or trading law, it was the state's guarantee that a piece of gold was what it claimed to be. If you own a gold ring, chain or bangle made or sold in the United Kingdom, the small cluster of stamped symbols inside it is a legal record of its purity, where it was tested, and who was responsible for it. This guide explains how to read that record. Seven... Read more...