How to Read Hallmarks

How to read hallmarks

• 1

  Examine your piece of silver or gold for a group of symbols that do not resemble the pattern. Hallmarks can provide a great deal of information about a piece, but each hallmark attests to or describes a single quality of the piece.
  For example, one mark will stand for quality: your piece may be sterling silver or contain a near-sterling quantity of pure silver.
  Gold content is measured in karat weight; 14, 16, 18, and 22 are common karat values. In many countries, a second mark verifies this content with an additional assay mark, verifying that the maker's claim is true.

• 2

  Look for three other common kinds of symbols. One describes the origin of your piece: that symbol may stand for its country of origin, or it may even indicate the city where your piece was produced. A second symbol may tell the year in which the piece was made. A third mark may be the mark of the artist or company that made it.

• 3

  Get as many other clues as you can about the country of origin of your piece, because each country uses and has often changed the symbols they use to convey all this information. If you know your piece to be imported from another country into the US, one clue may be a stamp naming the country of origin, common from the 1930s on. Knowing the countries from which ancestors came is a great help in identifying family treasures. Otherwise, you face paging through thousands and thousands of hallmarks.

• 4

  Research other hallmarks, if possible, on the basis of national origin clues. If, for example, your silverware is from England, the English hallmark system is very well organized and different kinds of symbols are used for each type of information. Standard marks (sterling) take some form of lion.
  City marks feature a detail associated with the city (for example, a leopard head symbolizes London).
  An alphabet letter stands for the year (rotating each year since the mid-15th century).
  The profile of the reigning monarch is a duty mark, signifying payment of a business tax or assay fee to the Crown.
  Initials or other symbols comprise a maker's or manufacturer's mark.
  French marks, on the other hand, contain lots of animals and human faces for several categories of information; changes reflect periods of political upheaval.
  Mexico uses three-digit numbers to express silver content, and it is rare to see a maker's mark.
  Much American silver merely prints out the maker's name and the word "sterling."

• 5

  Sketch or take a rubbing (using a pencil and tissue paper) of the marks on your piece before going to the library or a store for beginning research. Take a clear photo of your piece to carry with your sketch (this saves you concern about losing a salad fork or your mother's locket in the confusion of a public place). If you are researching at home on the computer, keep the piece close at hand along with your magnifying glass.

• 6

  Take notes as you learn, and write a final description of all hallmarks to keep in a safe place. Your memory cannot hold everything you may find out. Enjoy your discoveries!