Wow, So stuff made in the far east can be assayed there with UK hallmarks?

[medusa]

I was chatting with my casters the other day and they were saying that the Birmingham assay office is opening an office in the far east. I don't know how much stuff which is made and then assayed in the far east by european assay offices is sold in the UK, but I can't imagine it's that much, surely?

Makes you wonder what is the point of maintaining the assay system if it can be diluted like this.

[Goldsmith]

There has been an Assay Office at Heathrow for the past 5 years, Liz. I did read this article that said they had Assayed and marked nearly 5 million imported items so far in this 5 year term. See;http://www.jewelleryfocus.co.uk/inde...niversary.html

James

[medusa]

not quite the same as stuff being assayed in China with a Birmingham hallmark though, is it?

[Tabby66]

not quite the same as stuff being assayed in China with a Birmingham hallmark though, is it?

I'd heard a new 'British' assay office had opened in China, but that it wasn't being widely publicised!! Is that right Liz, they are marking with the Birmingham Anchor??.......as if Birmingham assayed piece??........nothing to differentiate??

Sadly shocked by this detail.

[trialuser]

Am I being thick here?
I thought the assay mark was a mark of assay, not a made in UK mark.
If it meets the required assay then it can be marked to protect and reassure the buyer.
If a UK office wants to do it then surely we should be reassured that the process was carried out legitimately and the import safe to buy.
It doesn't really matter if it was made by a Chinaman or a Scotswoman does it.
It would be interesting to know what the charges were though - I bet they are lower than for work submitted in the UK.

The question of possible cheap Chinese imported stuff damaging the UK makers market is another matter though.
Do you think it would affect the market that many on here aim for if the imports were UK hallmarked?
I reckon people are a bit snobby when it comes to jewellery and either buy it because it was made by so and so, or hand crafted in a studio in cuteshire - obviously they have to like it as well.
I was thinking of trying to sell a few bits I made to people at work for basically the materials cost to cover the bullion while I try and improve. When I did a bit of market research (asking about 20 or 30 women at work), whether they would attribute any extra perceived worth if a hallmark was present, not one would. Most did not know it was a legal requirement over a certain weight. Granted this was mostly 22 - 35 year olds and the very cheapest end of the market.

[pearlescence]

Isn't a hallmark a mark that shows a piece was presented for assay in a certain year. at a certain assay office by a specific person and was assayed to be of a certain standard. It isn't a maker's mark, it's a sponsor's mark, for eg.
One good thing about brum/china assay is that you can be sure no nickel regs breach

[medusa]

I'd heard a new 'British' assay office had opened in China, but that it wasn't being widely publicised!! Is that right Liz, they are marking with the Birmingham Anchor??.......as if Birmingham assayed piece??........nothing to differentiate??

Sadly shocked by this detail.

I'm repeating what my Caster said and he knows a lot of people at BAO.

Am I being thick here?
I thought the assay mark was a mark of assay, not a made in UK mark.
If it meets the required assay then it can be marked to protect and reassure the buyer.
If a UK office wants to do it then surely we should be reassured that the process was carried out legitimately and the import safe to buy.
It doesn't really matter if it was made by a Chinaman or a Scotswoman does it.
It would be interesting to know what the charges were though - I bet they are lower than for work submitted in the UK.

The question of possible cheap Chinese imported stuff damaging the UK makers market is another matter though.
Do you think it would affect the market that many on here aim for if the imports were UK hallmarked?
I reckon people are a bit snobby when it comes to jewellery and either buy it because it was made by so and so, or hand crafted in a studio in cuteshire - obviously they have to like it as well.
I was thinking of trying to sell a few bits I made to people at work for basically the materials cost to cover the bullion while I try and improve. When I did a bit of market research (asking about 20 or 30 women at work), whether they would attribute any extra perceived worth if a hallmark was present, not one would. Most did not know it was a legal requirement over a certain weight. Granted this was mostly 22 - 35 year olds and the very cheapest end of the market.

It is a mark of assay, and anything made abroad can be presented to an assay office for hallmarking in the UK. My concern (and from the impact assessment, the assay offices were also concerned about this) is that standards might not be so rigorous outside of the UK. I'm also concerned that it will result in job losses.

I think lots of people have little interest in the hallmarking of jewellery. I do it on my lighter-weight repro pieces just to ensure they aren't passed off as antique. For the same reason I won't buy antique stuff myself unless it has been hallmarked. Maybe there needs to be more public education?

The rationale for opening in the far east is that it allows the UK to compete with other EU states who operate in the far east. There must be a shedload of EU/convention stuff assayed at their far east offices and being imported into the UK to make it worthwhile doing. I really hope it's not just being done because it's simply cheaper for the assay offices.

One good thing about brum/china assay is that you can be sure no nickel regs breach

I think the legislation prevents nickel jewellery in any form now, doesn't it? Not just stuff made from precious metals?

[pearlescence]

Yes, it does. It always did. You have to be careful though because there is no such law in the USA so some far east or indian makers could still use nickel. For eg, USA made vermeil often has a layer of nickel between the silver and the gold.
Easy for a small total buyer to fall foul of the regs when looking at the USA findings companies without checking up on each item.

[SteveLAO]

It is recent legislation that allows assay offices to mark in overseas offsites. The offices should be under the control of whichever assay office set it up, and there are different assay office marks for items marked overseas so that you can tell the difference. For example, at London, items marked in the UK regardless of where they were made, has the leopard's head town mark for London. If we were to set up an overseas office, then the leopard's head mark will be replaced by a portcullis mark to indicate overseas marked items under the control of the London office.
I must stress that UK assay offices are not just going to hand out licences to hallmark to locals in whatever country the offsite will be set up. These offiste offices must be rigorously controlled and monitored by the hosting office to ensure exactly the same quality of testing and marking.
Our heathrow office meets items coming in from abroad and marks them at the airport, so we have no immediate plans to go offshore, but this came about as the Dutch assay office, whose marks we recognise in the UK, are able to set up anywhere in the world, and it was felt that this was unfair as up until this recent law change, UK offices were not allowed to compete by marking offshore too, and I understand one or two big accounts in the UK were lost to the Dutch as a result.
Naturally UK offices are concerned that if lots of items do get marked at source this will impact on jobs in the UK, but on the other hand if we aren't given the opportunity then forign offices whose marks are recognised in the UK will be doing this anyway.
I've asked my boss if I can do a fact finding mission for a possible assay office in Hawaii, the Seychelles, Barbados and Fiji, but I've not heard anything back so far...funny eh??

[SteveLAO]

trialuser & medusa.....interesting your mini survey - we did a bigger version of the same survey and found quite the reverse, that a hallmarked item was indeed seen to be more valuable than an unhallmarked one - especially as the unhallmarked one can only be sold as "white coloured metal" in order to comply with the hallmarking act. (subject to weight etc of course!)
You're right though that it is an uphill struggle to educate the "public" concerning hallmarking but we do have regular seminars in London to tell people all about it, and also impress on retailers that they MUST by law have their dealer's notice clearly on view. We also encourage retailers to tell their customers about the hallmark and what it means, and of course the fact that your sponsor mark is stamped on the item as a bit of everlasting advertising for your company!!
It is, after all, the oldest form of independent consumer protection in the UK