When did the 925 mark become common on small UK items?
Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 10:26 pm
I have no photos because this is a general query.
Small vintage British silver items such as charms were very often unmarked for silver content. If they were marked but not hallmarked, the usual mark was SILVER or SIL. Very occasionally I see 925 on an older piece.
At some point the 925 mark became usual on UK charms. My sense has always been that it happened sometime in the nineties, though I've seen the mark on some charms of a company that went out of business in the eighties. I'm trying to narrow down when the change occurred. I assume it was gradual, as I see no new regulations on marking silver between the 1973 Hallmark Act and the 1998 amendment to the act.
Does anyone have any notion of when the change occurred and why, given the (presumed) absence of a regulation requiring it?
Thanks!
Small vintage British silver items such as charms were very often unmarked for silver content. If they were marked but not hallmarked, the usual mark was SILVER or SIL. Very occasionally I see 925 on an older piece.
At some point the 925 mark became usual on UK charms. My sense has always been that it happened sometime in the nineties, though I've seen the mark on some charms of a company that went out of business in the eighties. I'm trying to narrow down when the change occurred. I assume it was gradual, as I see no new regulations on marking silver between the 1973 Hallmark Act and the 1998 amendment to the act.
Does anyone have any notion of when the change occurred and why, given the (presumed) absence of a regulation requiring it?
Thanks!