UK Hallmarking Information – How Does it Work?
Protection against Fraud
Out of interest I did a test purchase of some silver items from E-bay a couple of years ago. They were a mixture of bracelets and chains all said to be silver and all stamped 925. They all came from a highly rated seller in China and all five of them turned out to be silver plated. So please beware! Remember a 925 stamp on its own means nothing, nor does the statement that an item is silver. I reported the problems to E-Bay and the trader refunded my money but he is still trading on there.
Basic UK Hallmarking Information
A traditional UK hallmark has four elements:
The makers mark (mine is HQ in two diamond shapes)
The standard mark, such as 925 for sterling silver
The assay office mark (leopard for London for example)
An optional (nowadays) date mark which is a letter showing when the item was made.
Protect yourself when buying silver and don’t get ripped off – it isn’t a bargain if it isn’t really silver, make sure your items over 7.76g have a real UK hallmark.
For plain silver items go to https://www.stonesandsilver.co.uk/product-cat/plain-silver-jewellery/
If you are looking for hallmarked silver chains go to www.silver-chains.co.uk