Hallmarking
Sterling Silver Jewellery requires a hallmark if the article weighs over 7.78 grams, as detailed Under the 1973 UK Hallmarking Act. This requires the goods to be sent off and hallmarked by one of the UK’s Hallmarking Offices.
The majority of our products are under this threshold so do not have a hallmark, instead they will have a 925 stamp, this is often a small stamp and can sometimes be in an obscure place e.g. on the long tail of a fishhook, on chains it appears on the quality tag between the chain and the clasp. It may require some searching for. Although be aware that some items are not stamped where there is no suitable place and the stamping will lead to the detriment of the finished item, e.g. sterling silver beads.
All items we stock over 7.78 grams are sent off for hallmarking when received into stock and will be notated as Hallmarked within the product title.
We use the abbreviation STS to denote Sterling Silver on our products and our coding uses 80 as the end two digits e.g. 2115 01 80 to identify a product as 925 Sterling Silver.
Sterling silver (or STS) is an alloy of silver containing 92.5% by mass of silver and 7.5% by mass of other metals, usually copper. The sterling silver standard has a minimum millesimal fineness of 925. Fine silver (99.9% pure) is generally too soft for producing functional objects; therefore, the silver is usually alloyed with copper to give it strength but preserving the ductility and beauty of the precious metal.
Rose Gold Plated Sterling Silver 'Vermeil' and Gold Plated Sterling Silver 'Vermeil', these items are a gold plated layer onto a solid sterling silver base. The Assay Office and The British Hallmarking society have issued guidelines regarding gold plated silver articles (vermeil), stating the plating should not exceed a thickness of 2 microns, this advice can be viewed here The Assay Office The UK standards differ from the USA which states not less than 2.5 microns. We opt for a substantial plating at 1 micron where possible. Some items may have a 0.2 micron plating, this will be noted in the product description.