Hallmarking (also called assay or standard marking) is the official quality control mark that determines the purity of gold and other precious metals. To receive a price quotation using our scrap gold calculator, you’ll need to know the weight and type of gold you have. Fortunately, modern digital kitchen (or postage) scales are very accurate, allowing most customers to gain a relatively accurate indication of the weight of their gold. Identifying the type of gold can be a little more tricky, which of course requires us to read and decipher the hallmark stamped on the item.
For the purposes of explaining the various marks, we’ll use this ring. The first mark we see is the makers mark, telling us who manufactured the item (in this instance, H Samuel). The next mark we see is a Crown or Gold Standard Mark. This was first introduced in 1798 and can now been seen on all UK hallmarked gold that’s 9, 14 18 and 22ct. The crown also appears on old 12 and 15 carat gold, however this was stopped in 1932. We now come to the mark that tells us the gold fineness (purity). First, let’s look at the shape stamp. You’ll notice it’s a rectangular shape with the corners shaved off. This again tells us the item is gold. An oval stamp would indicate the item is silver and a ‘house’ shaped mark is used for platinum items.