SAVE OUR SILVER HALLMARKS

The ‘Red Tape Challenge’ launched by the Government on 7 April is designed to do away with any superfluous rules and regulations that make commerce more difficult than necessary. One of the regulations being ‘challenged’ is the requirement for all precious metals to be tested independently for adequate metal content. This is known as hallmarking, the name derived from the first assay office, Goldsmith’s Hall in London. (The London Silver Vaults's logo (shown) depicts the current London hallmark,
the leopard's head.

As reported in this week’s Antiques Trade Gazette (21 April 2011) the Birmingham and London Assay Offices have countered the ‘challenge’ to hallmarking with an appeal for people to log onto the Government Red Tape Challenge site and make their objections known. You have until 5 May 2011.

There are aleady more comments logged on this subject than for changing the Sunday Trading laws.

Rather than stifling enterprise, the independent hallmarking of precious metals carried out by Assay offices, could be claimed to promote enterprise and industry because it guarantees a consistent level of quality for gold and silver objects. A silversmith today who produces a silver object such as a vase or a set of cutlery, just like British silversmiths since the end of the 12 century, submits their work to be assayed. This way the ultimate purchaser is guaranteed silver of the required 92.5 per cent proof sterling silver quality which cannot be confused with inferior silver, silver plate, chrome, nickel or any base metal.

The customer is also told through the various ‘marks’ who made the piece, what date it was made and where it was assayed. It is one of the cleverest methods of quality control in manufacture and has contributed to British silver’s unrivalled reputation throughout the world. People who shop at the London Silver Vaults, for instance, know everything they buy there is as described by its hallmarks. Whether silver is antique or modern, it carries its history with it. This protects both silversmith, retailer and customer and should not be changed.

Silver value doubles in a year

According to Kitco www.kitcosilver.com the web page for investors in precious metals, silver doubled in value over the last year. To be precise it rose 122 per cent to where it sits now at around $40 an ounce or nearly £25. Metals and particularly gold, which now fetches a mind boggling $1400 or so an ounce, are seen as a good hedge against weak currencies and general economic turbulence.

Vintage silver objects such as one can buy at the UK’s biggest retailer of
antique silver, the London Silver Vaults are currently remarkably good value ounce for ounce against their bullion counterparts. But the strength of silver bars is likely to pull up the price of handmade or manufactured silver as demand for silver increases. So now might be the time to add some silver loveliness to the home and watch your possession become even shinier.