Are English charms and bracelets with hallmarks more valuable than ones without?
Not intrinsically. The value of a hallmark is that it tells you three things explicitly: that the article is guaranteed to have met the standard for sterling silver or for the fineness of gold indicated by the mark, that it was assayed at a particular place, and that it was assayed in a certain year (nearly always the year it was made). So it does guarantee the age and origin of the piece. It also implies that the maker valued the piece enough to have it assayed, which costs him something, and which he therefore would be unlikely to do with something he hadn’t put effort into and wasn’t proud of. So a hallmark on a charm or charm bracelet is definitely a positive thing. On the other hand, the absence of one means nothing much. The majority of English sterling charms have no markings, or at most are marked SILVER or SIL. They’re sterling silver, exactly the same as the hallmarked pieces, but just haven’t gone though the assay process. I’ve seen bracelets with no markings at all that wer
