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September 2020 September 2020

DORSET TRADING STANDARDS

Dorset Council Trading Standards Service check and approve
businesses so you don’t have to.
For more information visit www.buywithconfidence.gov.uk or
call 08454 040506.
To report or seek advice about problems you have
experienced when dealing with a trader call 08454 040506.

Trading Standards, the gold standard
The hallmarking of
gold and silver dates
back to 1300 when
Ki n g E d w ar d I
introduced it to
protect standards and
to prevent craftsmen
committing fraud
w h e n m a k i n g
jewellery. The first
stamp was a leopard’s
h e a d w h i c h
symbolised the King’s
m a r k o f
authentication. The
word ‘hallmark’ didn’t
come into use until the 15 century when craftsmen took their artefacts to
th
Goldsmiths’ Hall in London to be assayed. Today there are four assay offices in
operation, in London, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Sheffield.
Hallmarking techniques and regulations have been fine-tuned since those early
days. The current legislation that governs hallmarking has been effective since
the creation of the 1973 Hallmarking Act which is enforced by trading standards
officers.
If a jeweller makes items of silver, gold, platinum or palladium and wants to sell
them they are obliged to get them assayed which guarantees they are good
quality. The hallmark is then applied so it can legally be put onto the market.
A 2019 report confirmed that up to a third of precious metal products supplied
online are unhallmarked and could therefore be fake. Jewellery fraud has
consistently been an issue in the precious metal industry where counterfeit items

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