Advice for sending first batch to Assay Office

[Melanie De Castro Pugh]

No one has yet mentioned the obvious, which might be news to a beginner. For textured pieces it is best if you prepare a smooth rectangle for them to use. I also colour where I want the mark with an orange waterproof pen, so that my note states 3D laser hallmark, approx x mm tall as marked.

What he said :-) Except I use a purple marker...

[Keia]

Thankyou again to all that replied in this thread. The advice I received here was brilliant.

My first batch went through to edinburgh smoothly, so just incase someone else needs Assay Office information like I did, here's the gist of it:

Go online and choose one one the four assay offices - London, Birmingham, Sheffield or Edinburgh.
It doesn't matter which office you choose and you don't have to go with the office closer to you, unless you plan on doing physical drop offs / pick ups.
You are allowed to register with as many offices as you like, but you'd need to pay their individual registration and makers mark (the stamp with your initials on) charges.
I went with Edinburgh as a joint registration (myself and two good friends) we split the registration and makers mark 3 ways.
We choose the initials going on the makers mark and decided to leave the assay office with the stamp as we didn't want it travelling all around the country (there's an option to have your assay office strike your items with this or you can choose to do it yourself).
After the registration and makers mark is paid for, you'll receive a confirmation letter (if it's a joint reg this letter is sent to the one who's initials are on the makers mark - you become an "agent" for this person)
when you receive your confirmation letter you can start to send items to the office.

As advised, I sent mine in a small plastic clip-lid box with a business card / contact details on the lid. The silver inside had some complete jewellery in and some un-finished pendants etc. I marked on the silver items with a black marker where I wanted the hallmarks to be. The silver was wrapped in a sheet of kitchen roll and no other packaging, and their instruction sheet downloaded from their website. The box had around 26 items in to make it more cost efficient. This total (including postage charges both ways) only added an extra £1.55 to my "RRP" of each item.
I sent it by Royal Mail special delivery, insured for £500 - because if it went missing, RM only compensates the raw material costs, not your intended sell price or sold for price.
The assay office phoned me to let me know the items had been hallmarked and they took a payment over the phone - this payment is for the return postage to you (they post the same way you posted to them unless you specify otherwise on your assay sheets - refer to each assay office for these downloads) and the total costs of items hallmarked.

When the box came back to me, all items needed polished (the assay office needs to take tiny scrappings of each item to test the precious metal content) and I could then finish up the other items ( put pendants on silver chains, set stones, platinol shading etc etc).

It's all really a simple process, but quite daunting for someone doing it for the first time. Hopefully this quick write-up will help those that don't know the process as I didn't, and a huge thankyou again to those on this forum that helped me =)

[Patstone]

I send stuff to the London Assasy Office, and have sent three lots so far over the last year. Each time they have got the invoice wrong, overcharged of course, but once contacted have sorted the problem immediately. Last time my daughter went up to the 2012 Goldsmith Fair and took a few items to the Assay Office to save posting it. She took the stuff up in a bag to save having to carry boxes etc as she went up by train. The chap who was in the Office took the stuff off her and pushed it into a takeaway box, and one item was a wire necklace with discs soldered on it, and it was bent completely out of shape, the wire was bent so she complained to someone up there and they said that it wasnt bent unrepairably and they apologised and when it was sent back again, it was wrapped in about 5 layers of bubblewrap and in a very strong cardboard box.

[MeadMoon]

On a couple of occasions I've looked at my invoice from LAO and thought that it was more than expected, but I find their pricing so obscure that I wouldn't know how much it should cost anyway. The cost is usually made up to the minimum for the number of items, but some marks , like the "sponsor's mark", don't appear to be included in that and are charged extra. Is that right?

[Patstone]

As far as I can gather, there is a minimum charge regardless, if you send up less than say 5 items or less (not sure if its 5, but just an example) you pay £13 ish, and the cost of sponsors mark and hallmarking is extra. It is a lot easier now, because once they used to do it by weight, they would weigh a heavy ring and every other ring would be charged at that amount. I pays to make a mark and specifically ask for them to stamp it there, as my daughter noticed that one of the items that had just been returned with the damaged necklace!!! had the hallmark on the front of the pendant not the back.

On a couple of occasions I've looked at my invoice from LAO and thought that it was more than expected, but I find their pricing so obscure that I wouldn't know how much it should cost anyway. The cost is usually made up to the minimum for the number of items, but some marks , like the "sponsor's mark", don't appear to be included in that and are charged extra. Is that right?

[paintboxcrafts]

This is a really useful thread, thank you everyone. I am wanting to send my first package, having registered 2 years ago. I'm not sure what to do with things that come in two parts, i.e. toggle style clasps, with a ring and a bar. I have a very chunky one I've made that needs to be hallmarked. Do I list it on the hall note as two separate bits? - or maybe join the two bits together with a jump ring and list it as one thing? I understand that earrings are treated individually, do you list them as 6 earrings or 3 pairs of earrings - for example? Finally - do you have to put the weight of each item on the hall note, there is a column for it, but on their website the example hall note has the weight column left blank.
I'm using the London assay office, if that makes a difference.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Cathy