What do the markings on the back of my jewellery mean?
Current practice is that there should be three markings on the back of jewellery items. The first mark should be the ‘sponsor’s mark’ and this indicates which jeweller submitted the item to the Assay office to be hallmarked. The second mark should bear the hallmark code 916 if the item is 22ct gold – indicating that the item is at least 91.6% pure gold. Similarly 18ct gold items should bear the code 750 indicating that the item is at least 75% pure gold. Finally the third mark on the back of jewellery items is known as the Assay office’s mark and this identifies which Assay office in the UK hallmarked the item.
