Beginner’s guide

Recognising hallmarks in jewellery

Three figures on the inside of a ring tell you exactly where you stand. Here they are all in a row – including the stamps that look precious but are not.

Mia1 July 20268 min readBeginner

Where to find the stamp

A loupe helps. The stamps are often no larger than a millimetre and on old pieces half worn away.

Rings – on the inside of the band.
Necklaces and bracelets – on the clasp, or on a small tag beside it.
Pendants – on the back or on the bail.
Earrings – on the post or the fitting.
Cutlery – on the back of the handle.
Watches – on the caseback.

Gold

999 / 24K – pure gold
916 / 22K – 91.6% gold
875 / 21K – 87.5% gold
750 / 18K – 75% gold
585 / 14K – 58.5% gold, the most common here
375 / 9K – 37.5% gold, a great deal of British work
333 / 8K – 33.3% gold, a great deal of German work

Silver and platinum

999 – fine silver
925 / STERLING / STER – sterling silver
835 / 833 / 800 – the usual European silver alloys
PT950 / PLAT / 950 – platinum
PD950 / PALL – palladium

Stamps that mean no precious metal

This is where most of the disappointment sits. These markings look official, but they concern plated, silvered or an alloy without any precious metal at all:

GP (gold plated), GEP (gold electroplated), HGE (heavy gold electroplate) – a layer of gold.
GF and 1/20 12K GF (gold filled) – a thicker layer of gold than plating, but still a layer. It has some value, far less than solid.
EPNS, AI, A1, 90, 100 – silver-plated.
ALPACCA, NIEUWZILVER, GERMAN SILVER – copper, nickel and zinc. No silver.
RVS, STAINLESS, INOX – stainless steel.

A stamp is no guarantee. False stamping happens too. That is why we always check the fineness ourselves, even when a tidy 585 is sitting there – with an acid test or with X-ray analysis.

Maker’s marks and date letters

Beside the fineness stamp, Dutch and Belgian work often carries a maker’s mark (who made it) and sometimes a date letter (when). With antiques those can decide the value: a piece by a known silversmith is worth more as an object than as material.

If you do not recognise such a mark, leave it be and bring the piece along. We look at it before anything is melted down.

JewelleryGoldSilver

Questions about recognising hallmarks in jewellery

What does 585 in my ring mean?

585 means 585 parts pure gold in 1000 – that is to say 58.5% gold, better known in the Netherlands and Belgium as 14 carat. The rest of the alloy is usually copper and silver, added to make the metal hard enough to wear every day.

My piece is stamped GF. Is that gold?

Gold filled is a layer of gold over a base core – thicker than plating, but not solid gold. The material value is a fraction of that of solid gold of the same weight. We check it free of charge, because the difference between the two is considerable.

I can see no stamp at all. What now?

Simply bring the piece along. We establish the fineness with an acid test or an X-ray analysis. On old gold the stamp is often worn away and that says nothing about the quality. Small marks also hide in clasps and on the inside of bands, so we look with the loupe first.

What is Sterling?

Sterling is the international standard for silver jewellery and cutlery: 925 parts silver in 1000. You will see it as the word STERLING, as STER or simply as 925. The remaining 75 parts are copper, which gives the metal the hardness it needs in use.

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