Guide · 9 minute read
Reading UK hallmarks on gold, silver, platinum and palladium
The short answer
A UK hallmark has three compulsory parts: a sponsor's mark showing who submitted the item, a fineness mark such as 375, 585, 750, 916, 925 or 950, and the mark of the assay office that tested it. London's is a leopard's head, Birmingham's an anchor, Sheffield's a rose and Edinburgh's a castle. A date letter and the traditional symbols, the crown for gold and the lion passant for sterling, have been optional since 1999. Items below the exemption weights of 1 g for gold, 7.78 g for silver, 0.5 g for platinum and 1 g for palladium need not be hallmarked at all, and an unmarked or foreign-marked item is identified by testing.
No obligation. Decline and it all comes back free; ask for part of it back and a fresh offer is made for the rest.
The three compulsory marks and what each one tells you
A hallmark is the one thing on a piece of jewellery that was put there by someone with no interest in the sale. It is applied by a UK assay office after the office has tested the metal, and it guarantees that the article meets a stated fineness. It is not a maker's stamp and it is not self-certification.
Under the Hallmarking Act 1973, an article above the exemption weight cannot be described as gold, silver, platinum or palladium in the course of trade in the UK unless it carries a UK hallmark or an equivalent recognised mark. GOV.UK sets out how businesses must comply, and a dealer in precious-metal articles has to display the approved hallmarks notice showing what the marks look like.
- Sponsor's mark
- The registered mark of the person or company who submitted the article for hallmarking, usually initials in a shaped shield. It says who is responsible for the article, which is not always who made it.
- Millesimal fineness mark
- A number in parts per thousand inside a shaped surround. Gold sits in an octagon-like shape, silver in an oval, platinum in a house shape and palladium in three connected ovals. 750 means at least 750 parts gold in 1,000.
- Assay office mark
- The symbol of the office that tested and marked the article. There are four in the UK, at London, Birmingham, Sheffield and Edinburgh.
For a seller, the useful idea is an order of trust. A fineness mark is a tested claim backed by an assay office; a foreign number stamp is a claim by whoever stamped it; no mark is no claim at all. We give each a different weight when deciding how far to rely on the mark and how far on testing, which the guide to XRF and other tests explains.
It also helps to know how the mark was put on. A struck hallmark is punched into the metal and displaces it, so it sits crisp in a slight depression and survives decades of wear. More recently the offices have also applied laser marks, which etch the surface rather than displacing metal. They suit hollow or delicate pieces but can be polished almost away. A faint laser mark on a well-worn ring is not a warning sign; it is simply shallower than a struck one and wears sooner.
Date letters and traditional symbols, both now optional
Beside the compulsory marks you may find a date letter, which fixes the year of hallmarking by a letter in a particular style and shield, and one of the traditional fineness symbols that came before the millesimal numbers. Both have been optional since 1999, so their absence tells you nothing about age or quality. Their presence, especially a legible date letter on silver, is the kind of thing that interests collectors and can lift a piece above its metal. The symbols below are our own drawings, not facsimiles of any office's punch, and the palladium mark is named rather than drawn.
Traditional fineness symbols still applied as optional marks
| Symbol | Metal and standard | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Crown | Gold, any approved fineness | Applied with a carat or millesimal figure. A crown on older Sheffield silver is the former Sheffield office mark, not a gold mark. |
| Lion passant | Sterling silver, 925, marked in England | The walking lion. Edinburgh uses a lion rampant, standing on its hind legs, for sterling. |
| Britannia | Britannia silver, 958 | A seated figure. Shows a higher standard than sterling. |
| Orb | Platinum, 950 | An orb surmounted by a cross. |
| Head of Pallas Athene | Palladium | Introduced with palladium hallmarking, offered from 2009 and compulsory since 2010. |
The four UK assay offices and their marks
- London strikes a leopard's head and is the oldest of the four. Older London marks show the leopard crowned; the uncrowned head has been used since the early nineteenth century.
- Birmingham strikes an anchor, the mark it has used since the Act of 1773 that set up its office.
- Sheffield strikes a Tudor rose, but used a crown until 1975, so an old Sheffield silver spoon carrying a crown is not gold.
- Edinburgh strikes a three-towered castle. Scottish sterling carries a thistle on older pieces and a lion rampant on later ones.
Marks from the closed offices at Chester, Glasgow, Exeter, Newcastle and York turn up on older pieces and are perfectly legitimate historic hallmarks, as are Irish marks from Dublin, whose assay office still operates. A closed office's mark usually means the piece is old enough to deserve a second look before it is priced as metal, which is the subject of the silverware guide.
Imported pieces have their own history. From 1904 until 1998 the offices applied distinct import marks, with a different office symbol from the domestic one and the fineness shown as a decimal such as .375 or .916 rather than a plain number. A decimal fineness in an oval or oblong is therefore a sign of a piece that was made abroad and tested here, not a foreign stamp.
Approved finenesses and exemption weights for all four metals
The UK recognises the millesimal standards below, for platinum and palladium as well as for gold and silver. A hallmarked article is certified to be at least the fineness marked, and may be a little finer. The exemption weight is the mass below which an article does not legally need a hallmark to be sold as that metal. Both sets of figures come from the Assay Offices' hallmarking guidance notes, published on GOV.UK.
UK approved finenesses (parts per thousand) and hallmarking exemption weights
| Metal | Approved finenesses | Common name | Exemption weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | 375, 585, 750, 916, 990, 999 | 9ct, 14ct, 18ct, 22ct, and two fine standards | 1 g |
| Silver | 800, 925, 958, 999 | Continental, sterling, Britannia, fine | 7.78 g |
| Platinum | 850, 900, 950, 999 | Plat 950, the usual jewellery standard | 0.5 g |
| Palladium | 500, 950, 999 | Pd 950, the usual jewellery standard | 1 g |
The exemption weights matter to sellers in one way, which is that a light item without a mark is nothing to worry about. Stud earrings, small charms and fine chains under 1 g in gold are very often unmarked and perfectly normal. A heavy item with no mark at all is a different case, and what it is gets settled by testing rather than by reading.
Continental silver is the other trap. Much continental silver is 800 fine, and some is 830 or 835, so a “silver” spoon from the continent holds less silver for its weight than sterling. 800 is a UK-approved standard; 835 is not, and a UK office would mark such a piece as 800. Either way it is recorded at its tested fineness, and the itemised list shows the number the stamp claimed beside the number the test found.
Common foreign and manufacturer marks and how they are treated
Much of the jewellery sold in the UK was made abroad and carries the maker's own fineness stamp rather than a UK hallmark. These stamps are not worthless, but they are not tested guarantees either, and some are struck on metal that does not meet the number. The stamp is read and recorded, and the fineness confirmed by testing before an offer is made for the piece.
Marks frequently seen on imported jewellery
| Mark | Usually indicates | How it is treated |
|---|---|---|
| 585 or 14K | 14 carat, 585 fine | Tested; recorded as 585 if the readings agree |
| 750 or 18K | 18 carat, 750 fine | Tested; recorded as 750 if the readings agree |
| 916 or 22K | 22 carat, 916 fine; common on gold from the Middle East and South Asia | Tested at more than one spot; 22ct pieces sometimes test below the mark and are recorded at the tested figure |
| 999 or 24K | Fine gold | Tested; density checked on bars and heavy items |
| 583 | Older Soviet 14 carat standard | Tested; recorded at the tested fineness |
| Common control mark (balance scales) | Hallmarking Convention mark from a member country's assay office | Legally recognised in the UK, so the piece needs no UK hallmark |
| GP, GEP, HGE, RG, GF, 1/20 12K GF | Plated, rolled or gold-filled, not solid gold | Not gold through; see the plated and filled guide |
What a mark settles, and what it leaves open
A hallmark is evidence about one thing: the proportion of precious metal in the article it was struck on. It is silent about everything else a seller wants to know, and the gap between those two is where most of the confusion sits.
Questions a hallmark answers, and questions it does not
| Question | Does the hallmark settle it? |
|---|---|
| Which metal is this? | Yes. The shape of the surround around the fineness number says gold, silver, platinum or palladium. |
| How fine is the alloy? | Yes, as a minimum. A 750 mark certifies at least 750 parts gold in 1,000. |
| How much metal is in the piece? | No. A hollow bangle and a solid one of the same size can carry identical marks. |
| Are the stones or the filling covered? | No. The mark covers the metal it was struck on and nothing else in or on the piece. |
| Who made it? | Not directly. The sponsor's mark names whoever submitted it for assay, which is not always the maker. |
| When was it made? | Only roughly. A date letter gives the year of hallmarking, not of manufacture, and it has been optional since 1999. |
| Is it worth more than its metal? | No. That turns on the maker, the date, the condition and who is buying, and it is a separate judgement made by a person. |
This is why an assessment reads the mark and then tests anyway. Two rings can be marked 750 and still be quite different objects: one solid, one hollow; one plain, one holding a stone that should never go near a refinery. The mark begins the description of a piece. It does not finish it.
It is also why the marks are worth photographing before anything else. They are small, and they hide: inside a ring shank, on the edge of a pendant bail, under the tongue of a clasp, on the underside of a base, along the stem of a spoon. A phone held close in daylight, with the piece resting on something plain and pale, reads most of them.
A photograph of the marks does most of the work
Send pictures of the marks before you post anything, and a person can tell you what they suggest while the pieces are still in your house. That covers which are hallmarked, which carry a foreign or maker's stamp, which are plated, and which look old or fine enough to deserve a specialist opinion first. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Seller risks and exceptions
- A mark can be worn flat, struck on a replaced clasp, or moved by soldering a marked fragment onto an unmarked piece. The test is done on the body of the item, not only on the marked part.
- The word “silver” stamped on its own, “EPNS”, “A1” and “silver plate” are not silver hallmarks. EPNS is electroplated nickel silver and holds no silver worth recovering; EPNS, A1 and Sheffield plate explained covers the rest of the plated marks.
- A bare '925' with no assay office mark is a manufacturer's claim. Most are accurate; some are not. What the test finds is what goes on the list.
- A hallmark guarantees a minimum fineness, not weight, solidity or the absence of stones. A hallmarked hollow bangle and a hallmarked weighted candlestick both contain far less metal than their gross weight.
- 22ct jewellery marked 916 abroad is sometimes 21ct or lower when tested. Where the tests fall below the mark, the item list shows the mark, what the tests found and the fineness adopted.
- You do not need a hallmark to sell to Assaypost. The hallmarking rules fall on a dealer describing an article as precious metal in trade; a private seller offering an unmarked piece is doing nothing wrong, and the piece is identified from its tested fineness.
When not to use the scrap route
A full set of old marks is a reason to pause
A date letter from before the twentieth century, a mark from a closed assay office, a recognisable maker's mark or a Britannia standard mark can each mean a piece is worth more intact than as metal. Before you post, send photographs so the marks can be read, and ask whether the piece should be seen by a specialist first. A teapot by a known maker or a Georgian spoon belongs with a specialist dealer or an auction house, not in the scrap chain.
The what we buy pages describe, for each material, the marks and features that call for a second look, and the glossary defines the terms used across these guides.
Questions sellers ask
What do the three marks on my gold ring mean?
Together they are an independent test of the metal. The sponsor's mark shows who submitted the ring for hallmarking. The number is the fineness in parts per thousand: 375 is 9ct, 585 is 14ct, 750 is 18ct and 916 is 22ct. The symbol is the assay office: a leopard's head for London, an anchor for Birmingham, a rose for Sheffield, a castle for Edinburgh.
My item has no hallmark. Can I still sell it?
Yes. The hallmarking rules apply to dealers describing items as precious metal in trade, not to private sellers. An unmarked piece is identified by testing, and anything below the exemption weights (1 g gold, 7.78 g silver, 0.5 g platinum, 1 g palladium) is often unmarked for entirely legitimate reasons.
Is a 925 stamp the same as a hallmark?
No. A UK hallmark includes an assay office mark showing the piece was independently tested; a bare 925 stamp is a manufacturer's claim. It is usually right, and it is confirmed by testing before any offer is made.
Does a date letter add value?
It can, on silver especially, because it fixes the year of hallmarking and helps identify the maker. A piece with an early date letter and a known maker's mark should be looked at by a specialist before it is treated as metal.
Why does 22ct read 916 and not 917?
22 parts in 24 is 916.67 parts per thousand. The punch shows 916, and the standard behind it in the Assay Offices' guidance is 916.6, so a hallmarked 22ct item is at least that fine. Sovereigns are made to 916.66 under the Coinage Act 1971, which is why their fine gold content is taken from the coin's legal standard rather than from a hallmark figure.
What does GP or GF next to a carat mark mean?
GP is gold plated and GF is gold-filled; RG is rolled gold. A fraction such as 1/20 12K GF states the share of the weight that is a 12ct gold layer. None of these is solid gold. The plated, rolled and filled guide explains how each is built.
Ready to ask about yours?
Send photographs and a person will tell you what the marks suggest, what looks plated, and whether anything ought to be seen by a specialist first. Free, in writing, no obligation.
Nothing is sold until you say yes. Decline and it all comes back by tracked post, free; ask for part of it back and a fresh offer is made for the rest.
If a piece is worth more than its metal
A signed brooch, a date-run sovereign, a watch that still runs, a piece of early silver: anything that looks worth more whole is flagged to you before it is treated as metal, and you can take it back at that point.