Editing Hallmark (section)

==General overview==
{{For|the meanings of gold standard hallmarks|Carat (purity)}}
{{Unreferenced section |date=December 2016}}
Historically, hallmarks were applied by a trusted party: the "guardians of the [[craft]]" or, more recently, by an [[assay office]] ({{vanchor|Assay mark|text='''assay mark'''}}). Hallmarks are a guarantee of certain purity or fineness of the metal, as determined by official metal (assay) testing.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://wallingfordarcade.com/a-short-history-and-guide-to-english-silver-hallmarks/ |title=A Short History and Guide to English Silver Hallmarks |website=Wallingford Arcade |access-date=3 January 2025}}</ref> Hallmarks include information not only about the precious metal and fineness, but the country from which the item was tested and marked. Some hallmarks can reveal even more information, e.g. the assay office, size of the object marked, year the item was hallmarked - referred to as a {{vanchor|Date mark|text='''date mark'''}} (also known as '''date letter''').<ref>{{cite book | last=Jackson | first=C.J. | title=English Goldsmiths and Their Marks: A History of the Goldsmiths and Plate Workers of England, Scotland, and Ireland; with Over Thirteen Thousand Marks Reproduced in Facsimile from Authentic Examples of Plate and Tables of Date-letters and Other Hall-marks Used in the Essay Offices of the United Kingdom | publisher=Macmillan | series=George Horace Lorimer Library | year=1921 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GyY_AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA57 | access-date=2023-10-15 | page=57}}</ref>

===Distinguishment===
Hallmarks are often confused with "[[trademarks]]" or "[[Factory mark|maker's marks]]". A hallmark is not the mark of a manufacturer to distinguish their products from other manufacturers' products: that is the function of trademarks or makers' marks. To be a true hallmark, it must be the guarantee of an independent body or authority that the contents are as marked. Thus, a stamp of "925" by itself is not, strictly speaking, a hallmark, but is rather an unattested fineness mark, generally stamped by the maker.

===Prerequisites to hallmarking===
Many nations require, as a prerequisite to official hallmarking, that the maker or sponsor itself marks upon the item a responsibility mark and a claim of fineness.  Responsibility marks are also required in the US if metal fineness is claimed, even though there is no official hallmarking scheme there.  Nevertheless, in nations with an official hallmarking scheme, the hallmark is only applied after the item has been [[Metallurgical assay|assayed]] by an independent party to determine that its purity conforms not only to the standards set down by the law but also with the maker's claims as to metal content.

===Systems===
In some nations, such as the UK, the hallmark is made up of several elements, including: a mark denoting the type of metal, the maker/sponsor's mark and the year of the marking. In England, the year of marking commences on 19 May, the feast day of [[Saint Dunstan]], patron saint of gold- and silversmiths. In other nations, such as Poland, the hallmark is a single mark indicating metal and fineness, augmented by a responsibility mark (known as a sponsor's mark in the UK). Within a group of nations that are signatories to an international convention known as the Vienna Convention on the Control of the Fineness and the Hallmarking of Precious Metal Objects, additional, optional yet official, marks may also be struck by the assay office. These can ease import obligations among and between the signatory states. Signatory countries each have a single representative hallmark, which would be struck next to the Convention mark that represents the metal and fineness.