Silver Hallmarks

Edward I passed a statute in 1300 requiring the ‘Guardians of the Craft’ to go from shop to shop to oversee the purity standards. They were required to apply a leopard’s mark as identification for sterling silver, i.e., silver purity of 92.5%.

While silver hallmarks were earlier confined only to London, the assay offices were opened in other major centres of Britain in subsequent centuries. In the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, assay offices began functioning in Edinburgh and Dublin, respectively.

Later, new machines dramatically increased the production of silver in the sixteenth century. This led to a demand for new assay offices in Birmingham and Sheffield, which were opened after an Act passed by the British Parliament in 1773.     

In subsequent centuries, many modifications were made to the silver hallmark identification system, such as the introduction of the maker’s mark. While the hallmarking system flourished in Britain, it was also adopted by other countries as well.

This culminated in the formation of an International Convention on Hallmarking which was signed in Vienna in 1972. There are 21 signatories to this convention. It facilitates the citizens of these countries to transport silver with a hallmark from one country to another without testing.

This system is managed by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). It conducts regular audits and random sample testing from the market to maintain qualified standards of silver purity. 

Moreover, it has notified six different standards grades for silver:

• Grade 990

• Grade 970

• Grade 925 hallmark

• Grade 900

• Grade 835

• Grade 800

It is easier to understand these silver hallmarks with an example. If you purchase sterling silver, the Grade notified for it by BIS is ‘Grade 925’. 

Sterling silver contains 92.5% of pure silver and 7.5% of other metals like zinc or copper mixed with it. Similarly, Grade 990 is the finest grade of silver as it will contain 99% of pure silver. However, unlike gold, the government has still not made hallmarking mandatory for silver jewellery, coins, or bars.