Australian hallmarking

Jewelry Discussion
1

Hi Guys,

Just a noob question.

In Australia carat is no longer a standard to stamp gold. We have to
stamp parts per thousand.

Is this just us (Australia) or do other countries subscribe to this?

Regards Charles

2 
In Australia carat is no longer a standard to stamp gold. We have
to stamp parts per thousand. Is this just us (Australia) or do other
countries subscribe to this?

It’s the same in the UK too. Sterling is 925, fine silver is 999,
18K gold is 750, 9K gold is 375, platinum is 950 (or sometimes 900 I
think), as is palladium. The assay offices require by law that
anything made of precious metal which is above certain weight limits
(7.78g for silver, 1.0g for gold and 0.5g for platinum), if it is to
be described as that particular precious metal, it must be sent for
assay and hallmarking by an assay office (of which there are four in
the UK). If a piece falls within that category, but it’s not
hallmarked by an assay office, it can only be described as “white
metal” or “yellow metal” for example.

Helen
UK

3

Thanks Helen,

I forgot to mention Platinum is marked Pt here (or something like
that), we’re doing alloys in class at the moment. I find it
fascinating, but I see the other students snoring :frowning:

Apparently if I join the Jewellers guild in Oz, I get a little
kangaroo stamp to put on my pieces, as well as putting what appears
to be the contents of an encyclopedia as a mark :open_mouth:

With the assay office, does this mean that they’d do an acid test to
determine the parts per thousand?

Regards Charles

4

Charles,

For what it’s worth we in Australia are not as constrained as our
fellow jewellers in the UK. - as you are aware we don’t have to have
our pieces assayed before selling.

The Guild that you mention, as far as I am aware, are a group who
assess new members to see whether their items are up to standard and
on admission the member is entitled to use the kangaroo stamp which
indicates the member’s quality of workmanship and their acceptance of
the rules and guidelines as laid out by the guild. They will also use
the date stamp as used by the London assay office and their own
makers mark.

Roger

5 
The Guild that you mention, as far as I am aware, are a group who
assess new members to see whether their items are up to standard
and on admission the member is entitled to use the kangaroo stamp
which indicates the member's quality of workmanship and their
acceptance of the rules and guidelines as laid out by the guild.
They will also use the date stamp as used by the London assay
office and their own makers mark.

Yep, that sounds about right. Our tutor mentioned the guild last
wednesday.

Guilds can be a good thing, but they have to be recognised for them
to have any value, or perceived value.

Honestly I don’t know how recognised the guild is? If it’s just
recognised by the industry, or recognised by discerning buyers.

Regards Charles A.

6 
With the assay office, does this mean that they'd do an acid test
to determine the parts per thousand?

Yes, they do. They use various other methods too. I was surprised the
first time I sent something for hallmarking, to find that every
solder joint had been tested! There were acid marks on all joints.
Apparently, if things are sent in en mass, where each piece in a
batch is identical, then they’ll test one random piece out of that
batch, but individual, one off things are all tested.

Helen
UK