About hallmarking??
This was a bit of a head-scratcher. I toyed with the idea of attempting some form of wordplay with Grieg's 'Hall of the Mountain King' piano concerto, but my brain began to hurt so I gave up.
(Wix, FYI, is a cloud-based development platform with millions of users worldwide. They make it easy for everyone to create beautiful, professional websites, such as this one *cough*.)
Now, where was I?
Oh yes. Hallmarks.
But first: a proviso. I'm going to bang on a bit in this blog post, because it's pretty nigh impossible to talk about hallmarking in a few short, snappy paras.
Also, my comments refer primarily to silver. Gold, platinum and palladium have their own set of rules of which, to quote the great philosopher Manuel, I know naaaaaathing.
Back to it.
Not every country has hallmarking requirements, and here in the UK ours are quite stringent. They exist to protect you, the lovely buyer, by providing the reassurance that the silver bangle you just bought is genuine silver, and not 'Tibetan silver', for example.
'Tibetan silver' is actually a silver-coloured alloy made of copper with nickel or tin. It can be beautiful in its own way, but it has zero precious metal content.
"my silver bangle is stamped '925', it must be real!"
Sadly, not always, and almost definitely not if you only paid a couple of quid for it off a mass-market seller who sourced it from a factory in the Far East churning them out for a penny a pop.
The hard truth is anyone — literally, anyone — can buy a punch (a stamp for metal) from eBay or Amazon which says '925' and stamp it on anything. Or get a roll of stickers saying '925' and stick them on anything.
And some unscrupulous sellers do.
who can you trust?
In the UK, hallmarking regulations state that any silver item weighing over 7.78g must be assayed by one of just four official assay offices — Birmingham, Edinburgh, London and Sheffield.
This means the item will be tested for purity of silver, and then hallmarked accordingly. Any silver item under this weight is exempt i.e. no assaying or hallmarking required.
I'm registered with the Edinburgh Assay Office, and each individual product page for hallmarked items on my website includes a description of what hallmarking is. My FAQ page includes the legally-required dealers' notice for any UK maker selling precious metal jewellery online — we are also required to display a hard copy of this when we do markets.
I'm very proud of my hallmarks.
So how can you, the lovely buyer, be sure you're getting the real deal? It's quite simple: educate yourself about the whys and the wherefores of hallmarking. Oh and —
Buy from a small, independent maker.
As a general rule, we pride ourselves in upholding standards. In the UK, we often, even when the regulations don't require it, send our lighter-weight jewellery to be assayed and hallmarked.
Different countries in Europe have their own hallmarking rules; read up on those.
In North America, jewellery metalsmiths are trusted to stamp their own pieces not just with their maker's mark (these must be registered if they plan to stamp purity), but to also correctly and truthfully identify the precious metal used.
We invest years and untold amounts of money in training, materials, tools. Most of us are one-wo/man shows, which means that (just for starters) we also build our own websites, run our own online stores, manage all our inventory and shipping and logistics, handle our own PR and promotions and juggle social media, as well as appear 'IRL' at craft markets and shows.
No small, independent metalsmith in their right mind would risk their reputation, or self-respect, to misrepresent their work.
Always read the small print. always.
Apart from informing yourself, always read the small print if you're buying something online.
There are devious sellers who will misleadingly describe something as 'sterling silver' in the headline, but it's not until you get to the tiny print at the bottom of the description that you find out that what they mean by 'sterling silver' is 'silver coloured', or silver-plated.
If the details or description are lacking, contact the seller with your questions.
As a rule, Seadragon Silver uses only sterling and fine silver. Occasionally, we use findings which are silver-plated, gold-plated, gold vermeil, or rolled gold. Where used, these are always noted in the product description.
More than just cute cats on the world wide web.
Finally: I have heard rumours that there is allegedly sooooo much more on the internet than just pictures of cute cats (hard to believe).
So check it out. All the information you need is out there.
#seadragonsilver#seadragonseaglass#seaglass#silver#silverjewellery#supportsmallbusiness#opthandmade#seaglassaddict#handcrafted#handmadejewellery#handmadeinNorfolk#beachcombing#seaglasslover#addictedtoseaglass#beachlife#beachfinds#beachtreasure#Norfolk#England
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