Hallmarking
Hallmarking is a cornerstone of the UK jewellery trade, ensuring the authenticity and quality of precious metal items through independent verification. For jewellers, manufacturers, and suppliers, staying up to date with hallmarking legislation, standards, and practices is essential to maintaining compliance and consumer trust. Jewellery Focus provides expert coverage on hallmarking, including updates from the UK’s assay offices, regulatory changes, innovations in testing, and insights into the role hallmarking plays in supporting the trade.
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Sep- 2016 -13 SeptemberEconomy
9ct gold soars 32% in positive August hallmarking figures
The number of 9-carat gold items hallmarked in August soared 32% in a positive month for overall hallmarking figures. That’s according to latest figures released from the four UK assay offices, and compiled by the Birmingham Assay Office, which found overall hallmarking figures soared 10.4% from 696,251 items last year…
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12 SeptemberEvents
Applications open for inaugural Make Your Mark Awards
Applications are now open for the Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office inaugural ‘Make Your Mark’ Awards. The new design competition, which aims to challenge today’s students working in precious metals, will be presented at a special event on Tuesday 1 November during the annual Make Your Mark event. There will be…
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Aug- 2016 -24 AugustCurrent Affairs
UK Jewellers launch parliamentary petition to restrict offshore UK hallmarks
A group of UK silversmiths and jewellers have launched a campaign to restrict the use of distinctive traditional UK hallmarks, including city marks, to items hallmarked in the UK. For over 700 years UK hallmarks have only been struck in the UK, but the campaign said that there is now…
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16 AugustEconomy
Hallmarking slumps 11.8% in July
The total number of hallmarked items dropped 11.8% in July, a decrease of 92,333 pieces when compared with the same month last year. New figures from all four of the UK’s assay offices, and compiled by the Birmingham Assay Office, which found the total number of hallmarked items in July…
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Jun- 2016 -15 JuneEconomy
Gold continues to perform well as overall hallmarking figures fall in May
Gold jewellery continued to perform well in May as overall hallmarking figures fell 7.2% when compared with the same month last year. Hallmarking figures from the four UK assay offices – and compiled by the Assay Office Birmingham – found there was a total of 713,564 items hallmarked in May,…
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May- 2016 -31 MayTrade Organisations
NAJ plans ‘Made in Britain’ mark to boost jewellery sales
The National Association of Jewellers (NAJ) is considering plans to launch a ‘Made in Britain’ mark in a bid to drive jewellery sales. Hallmarking of gold and silver is currently undertaken by British assay offices which determine the metal content of the product rather than where the product was made.…
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16 MayEconomy
9-carat gold soars 15.8% as overall hallmarking figures fall
The number of 9-carat items hallmarked in April jumped 15.8%, despite an overall decline in hallmarking figures. The latest data from the four UK assay offices – compiled by the Birmingham Assay Office – found there was a total of 790,594 items hallmarked in April, compared with 810,831 in April…
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Apr- 2016 -18 AprilEconomy
9-carat rockets 16.4% in upbeat March hallmarking figures
The total number of hallmarked items grew 5.4% in March, boosted by an 8.2% jump in the number of gold articles. That’s according to the latest data from the four UK assay offices – compiled by the Birmingham Assay Office – which found there was a total of 740,976 articles…
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6 AprilEditor's Blog
Why it’s important to be a boffin
So how is the industry holding up so far this year? A salient question, but a hard one to answer without some statistical context. On the face of it, the trade is only just holding onto its hat, with a minuscule 0.8% increase in hallmarking volumes in February compared with…
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Mar- 2016 -15 MarchEconomy
Hallmarking edges up in February as number of gold articles jump
The total number of hallmarked items rose by 0.8% in February, an increase of 5,970 articles compared with February 2015. That’s according to the latest figures released today by the four UK assay offices, and compiled by the Birmingham Assay Office, which found there was a total of 766,310 articles…
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