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Argentium silver supply and hallmarking in the UK

#1

Dear all, Can any UK based silversmiths out there let me know the
deal with regard to Argentium Sterling Silver, which looks like it
could be a bit of a wish come true for us Sievert torch users plagued
by clogging Pripps spray bottles and ever tarnishing stock.

Who is stocking it at the moment? My main supplier of stock silver,
Cooksons, mention it proudly in their annual report, but it is not in
evidence on their web site, so the names of any other groups would be
welcomed.

Can you hallmark it? The London Assay Office are quite proud of their
traditions, will they sully their punches on this upstart material
that does not have the requisite 75ppm of copper? I tend to use
hallmarks decoratively, so this is quite important to me.

And finally, casting are casters reasonably amenable to working with
it? Is it politic to supply your own casting grain if requesting this
service, or are there some specialists out there?

As usual, any advice / comments would be much appreaciated.

Regards
Chris Penner

#2 
Who is stocking it at the moment? My main supplier of stock
silver, Cooksons, mention it proudly in their annual report, but it
is not in evidence on their web site.

Hi Chris,

I called Cookson about this, they said that they are negotiations at
the moment and hope to start supplying it late August/early September
this year.

I also contacted the Argentium Company
(http://www.argentiumsilver.com ) and they said the following:

  "At the present time we do not have a British manufacturer,
  however, you will be able to purchase material through our
  European supplier who are based in Finland - their details are
  as follows:- 

          Kultakeskus Oy
          PO Box 26
          Fin-13101
          Hameenlinna
          Finland

  Contact name: Mr Tony Jackson (English speaking) Tel: 00 358 3
  6571 405 E-mail: anthony.jackson@kultakeskus.fi 

  Kultakeskus will be breaking up soon for their summer
  holidays, it would be best to contact them quickly to place an
  order"

I don’t see why hallmarking would be a problem since Argentium
contains the mandatory 92.5% fine silver, though I haven’t sent any
to be assayed yet so I’m not 100% sure.

Eva.
Eva Martin
www.evamartin.com