Gold hallmarks by country: what each system guarantees, and what a lone number does not

The systems in one table

Finenesses are parts of gold per thousand: 750 is 75% gold, 18 karat. The stamp decoder handles the letters that mean plated, filled or vermeil, which can sit next to any of these marks.

The marks at a glance

Schematic drawings, not facsimiles: the shape to look for under a loupe. Real punches are a few millimeters across, often worn, and the details vary by office and year, so match the outline and then check the country section below.

• Eagle's headFrance, 750 since 1838
• Scallop shellFrance, 585
• CloverFrance, 375
• SeahorseFrance, 999
• OwlFrance, imported gold
• Star, number, provinceItaly, maker's mark
• Fineness in a shieldUK, the number
• Leopard's headUK, London office
• AnchorUK, Birmingham office
• RoseUK, Sheffield office
• CastleUK, Edinburgh office
• Woman in a kokoshnikRussia, since 1994
• Star, hammer and sickleUSSR, 1958 to 1994
• St Bernard's headSwitzerland, watch cases
• BIS triangle and purityIndia, with a HUID code
• Scales in two circlesConvention mark, 22 states
• Karat plus a trademarkUnited States, no assay

United Kingdom: the oldest full hallmark

Britain has hallmarked since 1300 and still does it the old way: the piece goes to an assay office, the office tests it, and it strikes three compulsory marks. The sponsor's mark is the initials of the maker or importer registered with the office. The fineness mark is the number in a shield whose shape tells the metal. The assay office mark says who tested it: a leopard's head for London, an anchor for Birmingham, a rose for Sheffield, a castle for Edinburgh. Two marks are optional and usually present: a date letter that changes every January 1, and the traditional fineness symbol, a crown for gold.

Legal gold standards are 375, 585, 750, 916, 990 and 999, and anything sold as gold in the UK must carry the hallmark unless it weighs under 1 gram. That exemption matters for earrings and thin chains: a light British piece with only a maker's mark is legal, not suspicious. What is suspicious is a heavy piece marked 9ct or 375 with no office symbol, because a British seller could not lawfully sell it that way. The 375 page covers the British everyday standard in detail. Convention marks from other member countries are accepted without re-hallmarking.

France: an animal for each fineness

France guarantees with pictures. The eagle's head has meant 750 gold since 1838 and is the mark on almost every French wedding ring. When lower titles became legal in the mid-1990s, they got their own animals: a scallop shell for 585 and a clover for 375; the top of the scale got a seahorse for 999 and an eagle's head with a 1 for 916. Imported gold of unspecified title is struck with an owl, a mark that dates from 1893. The maker's own mark is always inside a lozenge.

The guarantee mark is struck by one of the customs guarantee offices, by an accredited private laboratory, or by a maker that customs has authorised to strike its own, and laser marking is now permitted. Pieces under 3 grams of gold or platinum, and under 30 grams of silver, are exempt from the guarantee mark; they still have to be at a legal fineness and carry the maker's lozenge. So a light French chain with a lozenge and no eagle is normal, and a heavy one is not.

Italy: a star, a number and a province

Italian gold does not carry a state mark. It carries the identification mark of the maker, which the law defines precisely: a polygonal punch containing a five-pointed star, the number assigned to the company, and the two-letter code of its province, next to the fineness in thousandths. The number is issued by the provincial chamber of commerce, which keeps a public registry, so 1 AR is the first company registered in Arezzo, VI is Vicenza, MI is Milan. The legal gold finenesses are 750, 585 and 375, and 750 is what Italy overwhelmingly makes.

Because the mark is the maker's and not an assayer's, it guarantees exactly as much as the company behind the number, which for the large Arezzo and Vicenza houses is a lot. Counterfeiters know this: a star with a plausible number and 750 is the most copied mark on tourist chains. Two checks help. The punch should be a clean polygon with all three elements, not a star alone, and the chain should weigh what a solid Italian chain of that width weighs; the chain weight calculator gives the number. Goods from other EU countries carrying an equivalent responsibility mark are exempt from the Italian importer's mark.

India: BIS, purity and a six-character code

India's system is the newest and the most traceable. The Bureau of Indian Standards has run a hallmarking scheme since 2000, made it mandatory district by district from 2021, and since April 2023 every hallmarked piece sold must carry a HUID, a six-character alphanumeric code that is unique to that piece. The mark has three parts: the BIS logo, a triangle; the purity written both ways, for example 22K916; and the HUID. Marks are laser-engraved by BIS-recognised assay and hallmarking centres, not by the jeweler.

The permitted grades are 14K585, 18K750, 20K833, 22K916, 23K958 and 24K995, and 916 is the everyday standard, which is why so much Indian gold is 22 karat and why an American buyer used to 14k sees a deeper color. Verification is the strongest of any country: type the HUID into the BIS Care app and it returns the jeweler and the assay centre that marked the piece. A 916 stamp without a BIS triangle and HUID is a claim like any other.

Russia and the Soviet Union: three marks for three eras

Russian gold is read by the picture next to the number. Imperial pieces carry a woman's head in a kokoshnik with the fineness in zolotniks, where 56 zolotnik is 583 thousandths and 72 is 750. Soviet pieces from 1958 to the early 1990s carry a five-pointed star with a hammer and sickle and the fineness in thousandths, most often 583; the photo above is one. Modern Russian pieces, since 1994, carry the kokoshnik again, facing right, with 585 in place of 583, plus a letter code for the regional office of the Federal Assay Chamber that struck it. Legal finenesses today are 375, 500, 585, 750, 958 and 999.

The practical point for a buyer outside Russia: 583 is real 14 karat by any test, two parts per thousand short of 585, and refiners pay for it as 14k. A star mark on a piece sold as new is impossible, since the punch went out of use thirty years ago.

Germany, Switzerland and the Convention mark

• Germany has had no state hallmark since its 1884 law. The maker stamps the fineness and its own mark and is legally responsible for both. 333, which is 8 karat, is legal and common, so a German piece marked 333 is not a fake low mark, it is the local budget standard. The guarantee is the maker's name; buy accordingly.
• Switzerland controls precious-metal watch cases strictly: a case must carry the St Bernard dog's head beside the fineness. For jewelry, the state mark is optional, so a Swiss chain with only 750 and a maker's mark is lawful.
• The Common Control Mark comes from the Vienna Convention of 1972, with 22 member states: a pair of balance scales with the fineness, set for gold inside two intersecting circles. A piece struck with it in one member country can be sold in another without a second hallmark. British offices strike it on request, which is why some British export pieces carry both.

United States: no hallmark, but a stamping law

Nothing is assayed before sale in the US, and no office symbol exists. What exists is the National Gold and Silver Stamping Act, which does two things. A quality mark such as 14K or 585 has to be accurate: the FTC guides allow three parts per thousand below the mark on a piece without solder and seven with. And a piece that carries a quality mark has to carry, in type at least as large and as close as possible, the registered trademark or name of the maker or seller. That second rule is the one buyers can use: a 14K with no maker's mark beside it is not a lawful US stamp, and a real American maker's piece will have both.

The other American rule is the floor: under 10 karat, a product may not be described as gold at all, so 9k and 8k pieces arrive only as imports. Common US marks are 10K, 14K, 18K, the fineness numbers, 14KP for plumb gold that is exactly 14/24, and a trademark; GF, GP, HGE and RGP mean a layer, and the decoder reads them. Because nobody checks a US stamp before sale, it is the market where a test matters most.

How to check a mark, and when not to trust it

1. Find every mark with a 10x loupe: inside a band, on the clasp tongue and the jump ring of a chain, on the post of an earring. Marks are tiny and often half-worn.
2. Match the picture to the country in the table. A shield with a number and an anchor is British; an eagle's head is French; a star with a number and two letters is Italian; a triangle with a code is Indian; a woman's head is Russian.
3. Verify where the system allows it: the HUID in the BIS Care app, the Italian number in the chamber registry, the British date letter against the office tables, the US trademark against the maker.
4. Test the metal anyway if money is involved. Hallmarks are punched into metal and punches are copied; laser-engraved copies of struck marks look too crisp, and struck copies land on brass. Density and a touchstone are on the testing page.

Two habits keep buyers out of trouble. A lone number is not a hallmark in any country, so 750 on its own is a claim to test, not a guarantee. And a mark that could not exist is proof of a fake: a Soviet star on a chain sold as new, a British 9ct without an office symbol on a heavy piece, a US 14K with no trademark. The karat calculator turns any verified fineness into grams of gold and dollars.

Questions people ask