STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS
2002 No. 506
HALLMARK
The Hallmarking (International Convention) Order 2002
Made ----- 7 t h March 2002
Laid before Parliament 7th March 2002
Coming into Force - - 1st April 2002
The Secretary of State in exercise of her powers under sections 2(1)(c), 2(3) and 21(1) of the
Hallmarking Act 1973( a) (hereinafter called “the Act”) hereby makes the following Order:
1.—(1) This Order may be cited as the Hallmarking (International Convention) Order 2002,
and shall come into force on the 1st April 2002.
(2) The Hallmarking (International Convention) Order 1976( b) is hereby revoked.
2.In this Order “the Convention” means the Convention on the Control and Marking of
Articles of Precious Metals done at Vienna on 15th November 1972.
3.—(1) The following marks are designated for the purposes of section 2 of the Act as marks
recognised pursuant to the Convention, that is to say—
(a) except in a case in which the number is applied to the article by a person other than an
assay o Yce authorised as mentioned in sub-paragraph (b) below, a number in Arabic
numerals indicating the standard of ﬁneness of an article being—
(i) in the case of gold, 750, 585 or 375;
(ii) in the case of silver, 800 or 925; and
(iii) in the case of platinum, 950;
(b) a mark which has been notiﬁed in accordance with the Convention as being the mark
of an assay o Yce authorised for the purposes of the Convention in the territory of a
Contracting State other than the United Kingdom;
(c) The Common Control Mark comprising a number speciﬁed in sub-paragraph (a)
above.
(2) The Common Control Mark consists of the representation of a balance together with the
number in Arabic numerals showing the standard of ﬁneness of the article in relief on a linedbackground surrounded by a shield indicating the nature of the precious metal. The shields areillustrated in Part 1 of Schedule 1 hereto; and examples of the Common Control Mark areillustrated in Part II of that Schedule.
(3) The marks referred to in paragraph (1)(b) are illustrated in Schedule 2 hereto.
4.Every mark, being the name of a person who submits articles for hallmarking, or an
abbreviation thereof or a symbol indicating such a person which has been entered in the o Ycial
register of a Contracting State other than the United Kingdom, or in the o Ycial register of an
authorised assay o Yce in the territory of such a Contracting state, is designated—
(a) as a mark recognised pursuant to the Convention; and
a)( 1973 c. 43, as amended by The Hallmarking (Hallmarking Act Amendment) Regulations 1988 S.I. 1998/2978.
b)( S.I. 1976/730; as amended by S.I. 1981/559, 1983/1608, 1984/1131, 1987/1892, 1988/2286, 1995/2488 and S.I. 1998/2978.
1(b) as a sponsor’s mark for the purposes of the Act.
5.—(1) A person submitting an article for hallmarking to an assay o Yce in the United
Kingdom authorised for the purposes of the Convention may request the assay o Yce to strike
the article with the marks speciﬁed in Article 3(1)(a) and (c) above whether or not the articlebears or is to bear other approved hallmarks, and (subject to the provisions of the Act and, inparticular, section 4 as having e Vect in the manner indicated in paragraph (2) of this Article)
the assay o Yce shall give e Vect to any such request; and the following provisions of this Article
shall apply:
Provided that nothing in this paragraph shall require an assay o Yce to strike an article
with the mark speciﬁed in Article 3(1)(a) if the article already bears approved hallmarks
struck in the United Kingdom which include the mark so speciﬁed.
(2) Section 4 of the Act shall have e Vect in relation to the striking of such speciﬁed marks
as if—
(a) subsection (1)(a)(ii) required the striking on the article of the marks speciﬁed in
Article 3(1)(a) (subject to the proviso in paragraph (1) of this Article), and in Article3(1)(c), instead of the standard mark;
(b) subsection (1)(a)(iii) were omitted;
(c) the words in subsection (1)(“and, as respects all such articles” to the end of the
subsection and Part IV of Schedule 2 to the Act, did not apply in relation to theCommon Control Mark;
(d) in subsection (2) the reference to subsection (1)(a)(iii) were omitted;
(e) in subsection (3), in head (c) of the proviso to paragraph b(i) “585” were substituted
for “500”, and in paragraph (b)(iii), “995” were substituted for “the standard ofﬁneness of the article”;
(f) in paragraph 4 of Part II of Schedule 2 to the Act—
(i) in subparagraph (c), for the words “struck only with the standard mark for the
metal of which those parts are made” there were substituted the words “stampedor engraved with a speciﬁc designation of the metal”;
(ii) the words “and in relation to any article” to the end of paragraph 4 were
omitted; and
(g) in Part III of Schedule 2 to the Act, for paragraph 6(b)(ii) there were substituted the
following—
“(ii) these materials are used for ﬁlling the handle of a knife, fork or spoon and only
in such a quantity as is necessary for joining.”
6.—(1) A person may submit to an assay o Yce an article wholly or partly of silver with a
written request that it be marked as being of a ﬁneness of 830 as respects the article as a wholeor its silver parts; and in such a case the following provisions of this Article shall have e Vect.
(2) Article 5 shall apply as if—
(a) the number 830 were speciﬁed in relation to silver in Article 3(1)(a);
(b) a new sub-paragraph were added after paragraph 2(e) substituting in section
4(3)(b)(ii) of the Act “550” for “650”.
(3) Where a silver article is struck with the mark indicating a standard of ﬁneness of 830 the
article shall be struck with the relevant assay o Yce mark set out below instead of the mark set
out in column (2) or (3), as the case may be, of paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 2 to the Act.
2LONDON
London . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A silversmith’ s hammer with the figure 1 in the bottom left
hand corner of the shield.
EDINBURGH
Edinburgh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A silversmith’ s hammer with the figure 11 in the top right
hand corner of the shield.
BIRMINGHAM
Birmingham  . . . . . . . . . . . . . A silversmith’ s hammer with the figure 1 in the top right
hand corner of the shield.
SHEFFIELD
Sheffield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A silversmith’ s hammer with the figure 11 in the bottom left
hand corner of the shield.
(4) Marks struck by an assay office on an article submitted in accordance with sub-
paragraph (1) above shall not be approved hallmarks for the purposes of section 2(4)(a) of theAct; and accordingly the article shall be unhallmarked.
Patricia Hewitt ,
7th March 2002 Secretary of State for Trade and Industry
3
SCHEDULE 1 Article 3(2)
PART I
SHIELDS
For gold articles
For silver articles
For platinum articles
PART II
EXAMPLES OF THE COMMON CONTROL MARK
For gold articles of the standard of fineness 750
For silver articles of the standard of fineness 925
For platinum articles of the standard of fineness 950
4
SCHEDULE 2 Article 3(3)
FOREIGN ASSA Y OFFICE MARKS
AUSTRIA CZECH REPUBLIC DENMARK
P R A H A
FINLAND
1. Articles of precious metals
2. Articles of precious metals exported with standards of fineness other than those recognised by
Finnish law
5
CZECH REPUBLIC – CI
THE CONTROL MARK OF THE
PRAGUE CZECH REPUBLIC
ASSA Y OFFICETHE CONTROL MARK OF THE
DANISH ASSA Y OFFICE
Gold Silver
750 585 925
Gold
375IRELAND
“1. Articles of precious metals
“2. Articles made elsewhere
NETHERLANDS NORWA Y
PORTUGAL
6
Gold Silver Platinum
Gold Silver Platinum
Gold
375 585 750
Lisbon
AssayOffice
Oporto
AssayOfficea”
a”Silver
800 830 925
Lisbon
AssayOffice
Oporto
AssayOffice
Platinum
950
Lisbon
Assay Office
Oporto
Assay Office
SWEDEN
1. For all standards of fineness recognised by the Convention
7
2. For standards of fineness recognised by the Swedish law, being at least 750 for gold, 830 for silver and
950 for platinum.
(a) Articles made in Sweden
Gold
small marks large marks
Silver
small marks large marks
Platinum
(b) Articles made elsewhere
Gold Silver
Platinum
8
SWITZERLAND
A. O FFICIAL SWISS CONTROL MARKS
1. Articles of precious metals
Gold
750 585 375
“Helvetia” “Ecureuil” “Morgenstern”
Silver Platinum
925 950
“Canard” “Bouquetin”
9
2. Watch cases of precious metals not originating in Switzerland
Gold
750 585 375
“Lynx 1” “Lynx 2” “Titre bas”
Silver Platinum
925 950
“Gentiane 1” “Tête de li` evre”
3. Articles of precious metals exported with standards of fineness other than those recognised by Swiss law
Gold Silver
“Bernoise” “Tête d’ours”
10
B. DISTINCTIVE MARKS OF THE AUTHORISED SWISS ASSAY OFFICES
The distinctive mark of each o Yce is to be found on all O Ycial Swiss Control Marks at the place
marked with a cross in the illustrations above.
OYce Distinctive mark
Berne (Head O Yce) !(Swiss cross)
Baˆle-ville 9(5 pointed star)
Baˆle-ae´roport M
Bienne BLa Chaux-de-Fonds C
Chiasso t
Gene`ve-ville G
Gene`ve-ae´roport A
Granges gLausanne V
Le Locle L
Neucha ˆtel N
Le Noirmont n
Romanshorn RScha Vhouse S
Zu¨rich-ville Z
Zu¨rich-ae ´roport K
11EXPLANATORY NOTE
(This note is not part of the Order)
This Order, which is made under the Hallmarking Act 1973 revokes the earlier Hallmarking
(International Convention) Order 1976 which implemented the Convention referred to inArticle 2.
It recognises convention hallmarks and sponsors marks applied in another convention
country; and as a consequence articles bearing such marks will be hallmarked for the purposes
of the Act and can therefore be described in the United Kingdom as being of the precious metal(gold, silver or platinum) of which they are made.
The Order also provides for the application in the United Kingdom of similar marks which
will be recognised in other convention countries. Articles of ﬁneness of only 830 (accepted bysome countries but not by the United Kingdom) may have applied to them marks appropriateto articles of that ﬁneness, but may not be described in the United Kingdom as being of silverunless they are intended for despatch to a destination outside the United Kingdom.
The Order also adds the marks of Netherlands to the list of Foreign Assay O Yce Marks in
Schedule 2.
The Order was notiﬁed in draft to the European Commission in accordance with Directive
98/34/EC.
£2.50
?Crown copyright 2002
Printed and published in the UK by The Stationery O Yce Limited
under the authority and superintendence of Carol Tullo, Controller of
Her Majesty’s Stationery O Yce and Queen’s Printer of Acts of Parliament.
E0234 3/2002 120234 19585ISBN 0-11-039452-6
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