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Due to the continuing Coronavirus situation we are suspending our service and will no longer accept items for processing after Friday 20/03/2020, until further notice.
PLEASE DO NOT POST ITEMS TO US UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.
This will prevent our customers having valuable items ‘trapped’ in the postal system if we are forced by illness or by Government restrictions to close our offices.
We offer our sincere apologies for any inconvenience that is caused and we will reinstate full service as soon as we possibly can.
In the meantime we wish you good health and good fortune in the coming weeks.
The Team at Scrap Gold UK
A guide to British Hallmarks
Published Tuesday 3rd March 2020
Hallmarks date back over 700 years to the fourth century AD and were introduced by the Byzantine Empire as a standard to identify silver - their most precious alloy - through a series of punch marks in the metals surface, clearly indicating to the holder a guarantee of authenticity and purity.
In the UK, since 1300 the law has required anyone manufacturing gold or silver metal to ensure an accurate and legible hallmark is stamped on the item to provide an instant identification of the items purity and origin. The Hallmarking Act of 1973 introduced further guidelines to clarify the process of identifying the item’s manufacturer and make-up and to introduce a structure for hallmarking platinum metals. As of January 1999, all UK manufactured gold, silver and platinum must be identified with the marker or Sponsors mark, the assay office mark and the fineness code.
British Assay Office Marks
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