Types of Jewelry Stamping and What They Mean You'll need to look for the date stamp, quality mark, and town stamp to determine all the available information about the jewelry. You'll read the stamp from left to right, just like you would a book or a letter.Įach piece of the stamp denotes different information. To read the stamp, you'll want to flip the piece over or examine the inside of the piece. The most popular precious metals are gold, silver, and platinum and each one will contain its own jewelry stamp. Reading jewelry stamps is easy if you know what to look for. Any manufacturer who is exporting jewelry to another country will need to meet that country's requirements in order to sell his or her piece. Jewelers cannot sell their jewelry if it doesn't meet the legal standard.
Standards for jewelry stamping vary depending on the piece's country of sale. The tradition of jewelry stamping has continued well into the modern age. Their job was to oversee the marking of precious metals and ensure that standards were uniform across the industry. Government officials went out to metalsmiths to ensure that they were abiding by these laws.īy 1327 A.D, the British government established the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. Silver had to have a purity of 92.5% while gold had to have a purity of 83%. During this time, standards were set for the purity of different types of metals. This law was to ensure that buyers were not swindled out of their money, but were receiving the piece of jewelry that they had paid for.
Stamping jewelry first began back in 1238 A.D, when governing bodies began laying down laws about the quality of gold and silver. The idea of stamping jewelry isn't anything new.
Within a country, cities may have their own images that tell a buyer what part of the nation the piece originated.įor example, a British location mark is an image of a crown while a Scottish location mark is a thistle. Location marks will vary based on which country a piece of jewelry originated from. These markings are typically images that denote where the piece of jewelry originated. Location MarksĪnother type of mark that you might find on a piece of jewelry is something called a location mark or a town mark. This allows them to assign value to antique jewelry. Trained professionals can identify hallmarks to verify the age of a piece of jewelry. Hallmarks vary based on the period of creation and the purity of the metal used. The marks have a longstanding tradition, originating in England when goldsmiths had to mark their products with these stamps before the sale. An assay office guarantees the Hallmarks to ensure the material is of a certain quality for sale. Hallmarks are similar to quality stamps in that they are small impressions made into jewelry as a form of consumer protection. They help you understand what period a piece of jewelry is from and whether it is an antique. Maker's marks are especially important in helping historians date pieces of jewelry. Some countries, such as France and Italy, require manufacturers to register their maker's mark with governing agencies to help verify the authenticity of a piece of jewelry. They provide evidence that a certain craftsman created that particular piece of jewelry. Maker's marks are traditionally the initials or names of the manufacturer of the jewelry. Maker's MarksĪnother type of jewelry stamp that you might see is something called a maker's mark. The stamp explains the type of metal used, the weight of the metal, and the purity of the metal. Quality stamps include information regarding the chemical composition of the metal in a piece of jewelry. They explain why a piece of jewelry has a certain value. Quality stamps on jewelry give the wearer information about the metal content and chemical composition of the piece of jewelry. While at first glance these stamps don't mean much, they're actually extremely important to understanding the piece of jewelry that you're purchasing.
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The markings might look like a series of numbers or letters or they may contain whole words. If you go to a jewelry store, either to admire or to purchase jewelry, you'll notice that each piece contains small markings. The markings give the wearer important information about their jewelry and its value. Jewelry stamps identify the type and quality of the material used to create a piece of jewelry. However, jewelry stamps and what they mean have evolved over the years, carrying a very different significance than they did in ancient times. The art of metal stamping has been around for thousands of years, originating way back in 1238 A.D.
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