Selling finished goods Silver

[SueP]

Thanks 

[Zeldazog]

Glad I read this thread!

I am 99% sure that my items would always be under the 7.78grams, but I never knew that you had to display a dealer's notice.

Thanks

[Jay9]

Thanks for this thread.  I have just downloaded the notice, just need to book a stall now! 

[Nick]

Hi, for your information and just to confirm if you look at the assay office dealers notices page it says the following to be legal,

Reproduction of the electronic versions must meet the following criteria
The Dealers' Notice:

Must be printed in black and white
Must be clearly legible (minimum 300 dpi)
Must be printed in its entirety with no amendments, additions or deletions
Must be printed minimum A4 size, (210mm x 297mm portrait) but could be larger if required

If you have any queries regarding Dealers' Notices please contact one of the four UK Assay Offices.

[Blue Box Studio]

So my old dealers notice is no longer valid from 1 January?

I always used a swan necked punch, never made a silver ring in my life and when discussing with them they knew I'd not be making rings, although made some bangles in the latter stages.  That account's now lapsed I think, and it was my previous initials.  Am going to start working with PMC so was thinking I'd need to think about renewing/re-registering but, for things with just beads that I have bought and not made, how the heck do I hallmark them?  Is a hallmarking tag sufficient?

Good thread, and very timely for me.

[Nick]

Hi,

A tag would be sufficient if it's attached and the items you have bought would be tested as part of the piece at the assay office, if that makes sense. If I'm not mistaken a registration makers mark is valid for ten years before it has to be renewed.

[Nick]

Also
"The 2009 amendment to the Hallmarking Act requiring all articles sold or described as Palladium to have a statutory hallmark as of 1st January 2010 has created the need for a new version of the Dealers' Notice to be produced.
After a 12 month period of grace this will become the only acceptable version as of 1st January 2011. This therefore replaces the previous version, last amended in 1998."

So the new notice displays Palladium as well

[Blue Box Studio]

Sorry if I am being a bit thick here .... so, I make a lovely necklace with lots of beads and, if all added up together, more than 7.78g of silver... I have to send the whole necklace off to be assayed or can I just get some tags marked?  My necklaces weight quite a lot, are quite large and I'm already having nightmares about this because I (obviously mistakenly) thought it was individual components that had to be under the weight limit.  I don't live near an Assay Office so would have to post my things off and remember how the base copst inflated with all the postage and add on costs.

I've no idea what my beads weight but will be making sure that I use more glass and less silver at this rate.

Who offers a hallmarking service?  I thought Cooksons did but can't find it on their website.

[chipperpottery]

Yes Cooksons do, although they do not have it on there site.
The girl that deals with it is only part time. I telephoned them.

Rita

[mizgeorge]

Sue, it's the total weight of components in a piece that has to be looked at. You can send all the components (in a group) and have one of them marked before you make the piece up, or send the finished piece, but you can't just send tags and ask them to assume that all the other bits are OK. There has been two cases very recently of silver findings bought from a very well known company failing assay.

The hallmarking service from cooksons is in their knowledgebase, not the easiest place to find it. Or you could ask someone with their own mark to include some of your pieces in a batch being sent off.

[Helen G]

I am registered at Sheffield Assay Office and they advised me to that I only need to send the silver components for testing, including any tags, with an explaination of how the finished article will be made up. You can send in finished items but it's not advisable as they are likely to get damaged during testing. Be aware though that if you are adding a hallmarked tag to your work then there must be NO non silver metal parts, including stringing material so for example a glass and silver bead bracelet on jewellery elastic is fine but glass and bead bracelets made up using beadalon would not be fine  

[Helen G]

Oops cross posted with ya George 

[Blue Box Studio]

Definitely need more caffeine ... so I send them 20 silver beads from Cooksons, with a tag and clasp and tell them it'll have 20 glass beads around it, they hallmark the tag and send the lot back to me?  Do they hallmark the beads as well as the tag? Would be a problem on a 2mm bead me thinks.   I often don't know how I'm making until I make  

[Be aware though that if you are adding a hallmarked tag to your work then there must be NO non silver metal parts, including stringing material so for example a glass and silver bead bracelet on jewellery elastic is fine but glass and bead bracelets made up using beadalon would not be fine]

In that case I really can't see how you can make a reasonably heavy necklace with any silver in it because elastic is not a sensible option (I use softflex), you can't hallmark 25+ hollow 5mm or smaller silver beads and if you could they'd be marked to the point of being un sightly, let alone the cost per bead.  

I can see another spreadsheet coming on with a calculator for the beads, jumprings, fastenings, just to keep things under the limit.  If I could walk in to the assay office drop off and collect It be a lot cheaper.

Am I missing something?

[Nia]

[Be aware though that if you are adding a hallmarked tag to your work then there must be NO non silver metal parts, including stringing material so for example a glass and silver bead bracelet on jewellery elastic is fine but glass and bead bracelets made up using beadalon would not be fine]

In that case I really can't see how you can make a reasonably heavy necklace with any silver in it because elastic is not a sensible option (I use softflex), you can't hallmark 25+ hollow 5mm or smaller silver beads and if you could they'd be marked to the point of being un sightly, let alone the cost per bead.  

Am I missing something?

Sue, jewellery strung on Beadalon etc. is fine. I make all my pieces with it (or similar), and hallmarking isn't a problem. What you can't have hallmarked are pieces that contain silver plated findings, or silvered ceramics.
Nia xx

[Blue Box Studio]

Well, renewing my mark, which effectively means starting again as I've changed my initials since then, will definitely be a cheaper op0tion than Cooksons ...

    *
      One hallmark, costs £13.75 per item
    *
      Two-Four items, costs £8.25 per item
    *
      Five - Six items, costs £6.88 per item

Think I'll ring Birmingham on Monday, never found London over-helpful if you called them.  Might have to save things up and take day tips there and visit M-i-L in Kenilworth on the way.