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Thread: Silver casting in the UK

  1. #11
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    Hi Steve

    According to this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_...#United_States it looks like I wont need any marks which is good.

    Thanks Paul

  2. #12
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    hmm, I'd still be tempted to get "official" confirmation rather than to rely on Wiki....maybe that's just me being paranoid but you wouldn't want to get it wrong!

  3. #13
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  4. #14
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    I'm maybe coming at this from a different direction but working in this country hallmarkiing is seen as an added sign of the quality of British silver and I would probably be marking them whether it was necessary or not. Having said that I suppose it depends on the market you are selling to and maybe that isn't important

  5. #15
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    Hi Caroline
    From my experience of selling my works on ETSY, I have never had a single person not buy my product because it wasn't hallmarked, in fact, I dont even stamp .925 on my work. I have been on there since 2006 and have had over 1,500 sales.

    So I would probably say from my point of view it is just an added cost/hassle I would rather not have to worry about.

    Thanks Paul

  6. #16
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    Hi, Steve,
    I have been sending my silver there (over 1,500 pieces) for over 7 years without any mark on it (not even .925), and no one has even complained.

    So I think I am OK.

    Thanks PT

  7. #17
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    With the exception of things my son used to take and keep, and the odd underweight pair of earrings given away as white metal; I have all my work assayed and marked.

    I sometimes purchase old marcasite rings (that often have bits missing, or are not in a good state) to redo and practice setting new stones. I send these in too as previous makes. It is worth doing. One came back at 800 rather than 925!

    The buyer knows what they are getting. Regardless of location. I have also found my US /Canadian buyers have expressed their keenness on the English hallmarked items too.

  8. #18
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    [QUOTE=Paul Townsend;71311]Hi Caroline
    From my experience of selling my works on ETSY, I have never had a single person not buy my product because it wasn't hallmarked, in fact, I dont even stamp .925 on my work. I have been on there since 2006 and have had over 1,500 sales.

    So I would probably say from my point of view it is just an added cost/hassle I would rather not have to worry about.

    Thanks Paul[/QUOTE

    That's fair enough as you have a well established market. I've found that many of us selling from here use the hallmark as an added selling tool

  9. #19
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    For me, it depends on price. If it's over about £70, I normally get it hallmarked. If it's under (and of course under weight), I don't. I rarely get people querying it and if they do, I offer to get it hallmarked for an extra charge. I normally have rings hallmarked as some people will turn them black quickly, so I can prove that the ring is not faulty. It's also about turnover. Many of my things are personalised and have to be sent out within 3 days, so it's just not possible to get everything hallmarked. I know the purists will shriek at that but that's just the way it is in these days of high volume internet selling.

  10. #20
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    I agree its about pricing and also timescales.

    As most of my work is bespoke it actually adds £30 to an item to have it hallmarked individually which would normally be the case plus takes a minimum of 3 weeks for it to get from me in France, be hallmarked and back to me to send to the US ( the Birmingham office at least won't ship abroad so has to go via my friends and back to me for outside UK)
    So for silver items around £100 thats a LOT of money and a LOT of time-especially when you add up to 2 weeks shipping from me to the US too.

    Obviously any items like rings that I know I will sell a lot of I get hallmarked in bulk but many of my items I just can't do that so it does become an issue.

    I find that so far my US customers haven't been interested in hallmarking and would rather have the price lowered, the item quicker and no hallmark
    Having said that so far all my US sales have been under £200 for any 1 item and all silver rather than gold.

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