What is a jewellery "hallmark"?

There are jewellery hallmarks on the inside of each of our rings. They're teeny weeny! But when you look through a jeweller's loupe, you will see some important characters that have been stamped by us and the Birmingham Assay Office. But what do they mean?

The Stamps

There is a minimum of three stamps on the inside of your jewellery piece:

  1. Sponsors' Mark - our 'JL' stamp. This authenticates that your jewellery was created by our expert team at Jeweller's Loupe. It also confirms that your jewellery has been quality checked.

  2. Standard Mark - a number within a specific shape which represents the precious metal content of your jewellery. For example, Palladium = '950' within a trapezium.

  3. Assay Office Mark - used to document where your jewellery has been assessed and stamped. In our case, there is an 'anchor' representing Birmingham Assay Office.

Fairtrade jewellery

If you have chosen a Fairtrade metal option, there is an additional hallmark inside your jewellery. This is the Fairtrade stamp. In order to have a piece of metal stamped as Fairtrade, there must be a traceable and complete chain of manufacture from mine to sale. Every company involved along the creative process of this jewellery has also been given a designated Flo ID. Importantly, this proves that they are registered with the Fairtrade Foundation.

Birmingham Assay Office

We use Birmingham Assay Office to hallmark all our jewellery pieces. Birmingham Assay Office was founded in 1773 following an Act of Parliament presented by Matthew Boulton. He was a jewellery factory owner who employed over 700 worker. But, having to send his pieces to Chester for hallmarking was proving to be difficult. So Boulton, on behalf of the other (many!) silversmiths in Birmingham, requested a new Assay Office to be built in their booming town. Efficient!

Now, Birmingham Assay Office is one of the busiest in the world. Its busiest period estimated 12 million hallmarks in just one year!

The assay process includes:

  • assessment of the metal composition

  • application of the hallmark

There is more information about Birmingham Assay Office, here.

"Jeweller's Loupe" - I heard you say

You may have noticed that we mentioned looking through a jeweller's loupe to see the hallmark stamps. Yes indeed, this is where we got our name from.

A jeweller's loupe is an essential part of a working jewellers toolkit. It enables precision and clarity. Much the same values of our business and brand. Our main aims at Jeweller's Loupe are:

  • to nurture traditional craftsmanship.

  • maintain a close attention to detail.

  • provide an honest and transparent service to you.

We just thought you might want to know.

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