The official Hallmarking guide supplied by the Birmingham Assay Office.

In the UK it is illegal to sell or describe any item as gold, silver or platinum or palladium unless it is hallmarked and weighs more than 1g if gold or palladium, 7.78g if silver or 0.5g for platinum.  The hallmark guarantees the precious metal content of the item you are buying, giving you complete reassurance.

Example of a stamped UK Hallmark denoting a 925 Sterling Silver (Lion) item produced by (OW) Owen Waterhouse from the Sheffield Assay Office (Rose Crest) in 2006 as denoted by the 'g' stamp.

Hallmarks are applied in one of three ways. The traditional method of hand punching and hydraulic press punching are still widely used throughout the industry but in the 21st century, many hallmarks are now laser etched onto items, particularly for hollow, highly finished or intricate items or jewellery and watched.

Compulsory Marks

The sponsors mark is the unique mark of the company or person responsible for sending the article for hallmarking.  The sponsor maybe the original manufacturer, importer, wholesaler, retailer or an individual. To obtain a Sponsors mark you must register with an Assay Office.

The Standard Hallmark Mark demonstrates the standard of finesse, i.e. the purity of the precious metal content in parts per 1000.  For example, 18 carat gold is 750 parts per 1000 by weight.

The Assay Office Mark shows which Assay Office tested and marked the item.

Optional marks

The Date Mark defined by a stamped letter shows the year in which the article was hallmarked.

Traditional Marks – Still in use today, these traditional marks are sometimes used to show the type of metal.
Commemorative marks – These are special hallmarks to celebrate major events such as the Queens Golden Jubilee (2002) and passing of the Millennium (1999 – 2000).

International Convention Marks – Since 1972 the UK has been a signatory to the International Convention on Hallmarks. This means that UK Assay Offices can apply the common control mark which will then be recognised by all member countries in the convention.  Conversely, convention hallmarks that have been applied in other member countries are recognised in the UK.

If you have any questions regarding your hallmarked gold, silver, platinum or palladium, or if you would like to buy or sell precious metals, call our sales office on 0121 523 1047 or email sales@thegoldbullion.co.uk.

Money Watch on BBC One last night (21st July 2010) as part of a series titled How to Beat Tough Times, featured gold in a comparative between various different forms of high performance investments.  The hour long prime time show concluded with a five minute feature investigating four different investments over a period of up to twenty years. The show invited investment expert Jonathan Davies to assess the performance of property, stocks and shares, gold bullion and fine wine.

The Stocks and Shares Investment - Over the last year (June 2009 to 2010) The best performing option was reported to be stocks and shares, not a complete surprise considering the stock market could really only move one way following the global recession. Over the past 12 months, stocks and shares have soared an impressive 40%, but, that’s a market spread, you’ll need to be a pretty Sharpe investor to identify stocks and shares that are on the move and in the right direction! And not forgetting, the stock market is widely viewed as a high risk investment avenue.

The Gold Bullion Investment - Over the past ten years, gold bullion was the clear winner, accumulating a huge 300% growth in value. Gold has maintained steady growth throughout history and has weathered the economic ups and downs of the past century well. Gold has earned its stable, solid investment reputation and is the first place nervous investors turn to when times are bad. Confidence in gold investments has always been high.

The Fine Wine Investment - The clear winner for sheer impressive growth, albeit over a much longer 20 year term is wine! Fine wine investments have grown a massive 1300% over the past 20 years! Investing in wine isn’t so common place and seen as more of a niche investment.  With the huge range of wines from around the world, forecasting which wine to put you money into will also throw up considerable risk. Fine wines are a very volatile product, kept in anything but the most precisely temperate, humid and dusky conditions are liable to spoil along with your investment value.

The Property Market – The programme didn’t venture too far with the property market comparative results and if the show had aired five years ago, we’re pretty sure property would have been up there on a par with the other investments. The property marketing has a fairly high entry point for most investors and in recent years has shown just how volatile the price of property can be.  Property is a difficult animal to generalise due to geographic, quality and a whole host of other factors. Some investments in property have been a huge success, while others far from it!

To conclude the results of the investigation, while the short term winner appears to be stocks and shares, it is important to note that looking back beyond the past twelve months the value of stock markets around the world plummeted and this rise is really just the road to recovery from their pre-recession standing.  For sheer impressive growth figures, wine wins hands down but is an investment requiring time to mature and bundles a huge quantity of risk into the equation.

So we come to gold… It will come as no surprise and ultimately convenient that we interpret the results as nothing but positive for the gold investment option but, with all things considered for a stable and secure short or long term investment gold has consistently performed well.  Gold is available in a wide range of weights, enabling everyone from the small time investor to the national banking institutions entry into the same common market. Gold is a currency, acknowledged globally and unmistakeable in every way.  There are no concerns of choosing the right type, make or model of gold and storage is a simple as a bank deposit vault.

After the gold market took a further surge through June, the gold price has today slumped back to the $1,180/Oz mark, its lowest point since late May almost two months ago.

The on-going gold price surge has been fuelled by market concerns over inflation and Euro Zone stability fears, both of which have seen signs of easing in recent days.

With the gold price dip, new private gold investors may be tempted into the market as industry analysts hold out hope of a continued longer term creep towards the magic $2,000/Oz mark over the next three to five years.

Silver has long been regarded the poorer investment cousin to the flourishing gold market, with its value sitting at a fraction of the gold price, focus has for a long time been fixed on the scarcer, higher demand and more portable gold market - You’ll have to store a fair chunk of silver to match a 1KG gold bar investment…. But silver may soon have its day!

Silver prices have traditionally tracked the gold trend and with popularity in the domestic jewellery and manufacturing markets remaining steady, despite the decline of some major silver consuming markets such as photo reprographics, silver is set for a gradual climb to match that of gold as we head towards 2011.

A few factors that impact the silver price which are worth consideration – While the demand for silver continues to increase, the supply which is still increasing year on year, isn’t keeping pace making silver a gradually more scarce commodity.  The majority of silver is sourced as a bi-product from other mining activates while dedicated silver mines, which extract silver far more economically, are nearing exhaustion.

Scrap Silver, just not exciting… The gold industry has seen huge input from the relatively new Scrap Gold market, powered mainly by private sales of recycled jewellery as people look to take advantage of a well-publicised gold high and free up some much needed cash in a tough economy. Scrap Silver on the other hand hasn’t seen such exciting activity, people just aren’t inspired by the low value of silver to go routing through their cupboards and draws for old silver! And so silver, has become a more use once and throw away metal, especially in industrial applications where silver is often used for minor components and connections.

But the two ultimate factors influencing the future silver fore will be the gold price and the strength of the US dollar – A slowdown in the strengthening rate of the dollar is the trigger for surge of investment in the commodities markets, but with gold already sitting near its all-time high, many potential low level investors, who combined are a sizable market force, will look to a similar alternative with potential to grow, silver will most probably be the primary choice.

So thoughts on the silver price as we head towards 2011 are positive, over the next three years the generally thinking is silver will make huge gains – but will it match those of gold in recent years?

If you’ve been inspired by this article to invest in silver you might want to now take a look at our 1kg Silver Bullion and 5kg silver bullion bars, you can buy silver bullion or buy gold bullion safe and secure online direct from the Gold Bullion Company or call 0121 523 1047 and order by phone.