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Hallmarking

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                                            Our Commitment to Hallmarking

When it comes to manufacturing jewellery and silverware, precious metals (silver, palladium, gold and platinum) are rarely used in their purest form. Instead, they are usually alloyed with lesser metals to achieve a desired strength, durability, and colour.

It is not possible to detect the precious metal content of an item by sight or by touch. It is, therefore, a legal requirement to have items consisting of silver, palladium, gold or platinum independently tested and then hallmarked before they can be described as such. Items must bear a hallmark at point of sale, subject to the following weight exemptions:

Silver: mandatory for items above 7.78 grams; gold: mandatory for items above 1 gram; palladium: mandatory for items above 1 gram; platinum: mandatory for items above 0.5 grams.

Gaelo Jewellery is registered with the Edinburgh Assay Office ensuring our precious metal jewellery is compliant with the UK’s hallmarking regulations. All stock is subject to an internal confirmation process to ensure it meets the UK’s hallmarking regulations before it is dispatched to our customers.

For articles that are below the UK hallmarking Act’s mandatory weight for hallmarking Gaelo Jewellery operates a separate due diligence process which involves periodic voluntary testing of items that fall below the mandatory weight to ensure they meet the minimum fineness requirement.


 

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*The term STERLING  comes from the 14th/15th century - silver was a common metal of coinage and exchange, but in those days silver came from a wide variety of places and its reliability as a stable commodity suffered from unreliable and variable purities.  Over time, it was generally accepted that the silver which came from Eastern Europe (what is now Germany and Poland) was accepted as being of good, consistent quality and it became known as Easterly or Easterling Silver - and this evolved into the term Sterling silver. Now you know.

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