Metal Guide

Karats refer to the ratio of gold to other metals in your jewellery. Pure Gold is malleable so other metals are added to gold jewellery to strengthen it and in some cases to enhance the color (e.g. "rose gold" contains a certain % of copper depending of the number of karats).

 

Hallmark 

The purpose of hallmarking is to protect buyers of precious metal items against fraud. The hallmark is a mark which shows that the item has been independently tested and verified as matching its description, and conforming to all legal standards of purity or fineness of the metal.

All items (over certain weights) sold in the UK and described as being made from gold, silver, platinum or palladium must have a legally recognised hallmark.

1. A sponsor’s or maker’s mark

This is the registered mark of the company or person that sends the item for hallmarking. Manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, importers and more can all be sponsors. In the UK, this mark has at least 2 letters, and all marks are unique.

2. A metal and purity (fineness) mark

This mark shows the precious metal content in the item, recorded in parts per thousand. This means that the number tells you the proportion of precious metal content in the alloy. For example, the fineness mark of 9 carat gold is 375. This tells us that the alloy must have at least 375 parts gold per 1,000. The shape surrounding the number indicates the metal type, which you can see in the diagram below.

3. An Assay Office mark 

This mark shows which of the 4 Assay Office in the UK tested and hallmarked the item.

4. A date letter

A date letter (optional) indicates the year when the item was hallmarked, for example ‘U’ indicates 2019. It is changed on 1 January each year.