Final Stage

With the bangle completely finished it was off to the Assay Office to get it checked and hallmarked. J is lucky as the Edinburgh office, one of four across the UK, is just a short walk up Leith Walk. The office, now known as the Assay Office Scotland, continues work that has been going on since 1457 when The Incorporation of Goldsmiths of the City of Edinburgh was established. The hallmarks that we are familiar with on precious metal objects are the symbols of the UK's process for checking the quality of precious metals. The UK is one of only a few countries in the world that have compulsory statutory hallmarking. This means that every item sold as precious metal - gold, silver, platinum or palladium - must have been tested and hallmarked by one of the four independent third-party Assay Offices to guarantee that the precious metal is of the fineness stated. The law applies to everything sold in the UK, regardless of where it may have been manufactured.  The only exemptions are items which fall beneath the specified weight thresholds which are 1 gram for gold, 7.78 grams for silver, 0.5 grams for platinum and 1 gram for palladium. And even then the creators of the pieces may still opt to have the hallmarking done in order to assure potential customers of the quality of the product. As well as the marks for metal quality, assay office and date there is also a specific mark for each registered maker, kept in their registered office and re-registered every ten years. Like everyone else, J has her own mark that is applied to her work and which allows it to be specifically identified as one of her pieces. I love the sense of history and continuity in all this!