J. R. Gaunt silver mark

[Bill A]

A question about silver marks. It is my understanding that British silver hallmarks use the well known "code" system. Would any British made sterling badges circa the First World War be stamped Sterling Silver without the standard hallmarks?

[mike_vee]

Some jewellers/manufacturers did not send all their items to an Assay Office to be hallmarked and instead they stamped the silver themselves with a maker's mark, a town mark or combinations of these and other marks. I have seen items simply marked silver/sterling/sterling silver.

Here are the current rules from the Assay Office website :

Articles which should have been hallmarked when they were made, but bear no hallmark, are now treated as exempt if they were manufactured before a specific date. Since 1999, the date has been 1920, but the amended legislation alters this date to 1950. Therefore, any pre-1950 item may now be described and sold as precious metal, if the seller can prove that it is of minimum fineness and was manufactured before 1950.

6th April 2007 also sees another amendment to Hallmarking legislation in respect of items brought onto the market pre 1950.

Prior to this date it was not compulsory to hallmark all precious metal articles, and up until now unhallmarked items manufactured after 1920 could not legally be described as silver, gold or platinum.

The new amendment extends the exemption date to 1950 and allows these items to now be sold as gold, silver or platinum without a hallmark, so long as the seller can prove the fineness of the precious metal and that the item was manufactured before 1950.

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[KLR]

Yes, Gaunt made silver & Gilt officers' cap badges, marked either with a P or a S - in serif or sans serif. Anyway, here is some blurb from a forthcoming book - but only on one regiment !!!


'Some officers declined to spend more on the badge being fully assayed (Hall Marked). Silver or silver plated badges were often stamped with a S = silver or P = plated silver. The S or P letters on earlier badges had serifs – denoted [s] whereas the later ones were sans serif [ss]. Some ‘silver’ badges were stamped with SILVER instead of assay marks. However, from the 1970s counterfeit badges were given spurious stamps. STERLING stamps on badges are more obviously suspicious, though they are common on brooches.'

[gary1666]

Hi Bill,
Certainly many silver pieces in the UK didn't get hallmarked at the time of WW1 - smaller items like brooches, thimbles, hat pins and the like are all found with just silver stamped on them, and many from big manufacturers of the time like Charles Horner.
But as for Gaunt I don't know if their items would have been like this - I'm sure someone here will know for sure.
Gary

[Alex Rice]

Hi Bill
Here is a link to a thread I started a while ago.
https://www.britishbadgeforum.com/fo...ghlight=silver
The 4th photo in post 2 is an early Essex Reg cap badge, I think actually pre-WWI, not WWI.
Cheers,
Alex

[dumdum]

Hi

I have, for some time now had a full size RE silver cap badge (G v R). It is pin-backed but I would think far too big to be a sweetheart. Maybe someone not wanting to put holes in his Moss Bros hat....

It is unmarked but appears to be silver (no, not a "badgeman" effort......).

If anyone is keen, PM me and I can send photos as it will probably be surplus to needs soon.