Marking of Jewellery
THE MARKS ON THE PRECIOUS METALS ARTICLES
Precious Metal Articles Act specifies the compulsory and additional Marks on articles of precious metal:
- Precious metals article is marked with compulsory marks in the case of Sponsor’s mark and Fineness Mark presence on it.
- Sponsor’s Mark indicates the person (or enterprise), who is responsible for the conformity of the article of precious metal to Precious Metal Articles Act.
- Fineness Mark indicates to which of the standard fineness of precious metal alloy product corresponds.
Permitted to use the combined Sponsor’s Mark with Fineness Mark. - Control Mark is the mark, by which Assay office attests that the fineness mark of precious metal used for the manufacture of the article of precious metal is checked and conforms to the standard. A mark with the image of the lion passant guardant in an oval hollow is a control mark of Estonia. On power of the Estonian Government attorney AS Metrosert, Assay Office has exclusive rights of precious metals items Hallmarking in Estonia.
Permitted to use the combined Control Mark with Fineness Mark. - Date Mark indicates the year of precious metal article manufacturing. As Date Marks, since 1993 are established the capital letters of Estonian alphabet. Permitted to use the combined Sponsor’s Mark with Date Mark. In the case of precious metal articles marking with single marks, they are placed as follows: a date mark, a sponsor’s mark, a fineness mark, a control mark.
In the case of precious metal articles marking with combined marks, depending on the commonality of the marks as follows:
- a Date letter, a combined Sponsor’s mark with a Fineness mark, a Control mark; or
- a Date letter, a Sponsor’s mark and a combined Control mark with a Fineness mark.
The precious metal articles marking
(as example is marking of silver item with 925 fineness)
| The precious metal articles marking | The marking explanation |
|---|---|
  | The Sponsor’s Mark, the Fineness Mark |
 | Combined Sponsor’s Mark with Date Mark, the Fineness Mark |
 | Combined Sponsor’s Mark with Fineness Mark |
  | Combined Sponsor’s Mark with Fineness Mark, Control Mark |
| | Sponsor’s Mark, Fineness Mark, Control Mark |
| | Combined Sponsor’s Mark with Date Mark, combined Control Mark with Fineness Mark |
Where are:
– The Date Mark
– The Sponsor’s Mark of precious metal article producer or importer
– Combined Sponsor’s Mark with Date Mark
– Fineness mark 925
– Estonian Control Mark
– Estonian Control Mark combined with Fineness Mark 925
Precious metal articles that can be offered for sale or transferred for charge without mandatory marking are the following:
- precious metal articles possessing antiquity value that either bear a earlier marking or not
- used precious metal articles bearing a readable fineness mark of the solotnik-system or millesimal-system (on the condition that all the elements of the mark are preserved and readable with 10x magnification)
- used precious metal articles do not bear the registered Sponsor’s mark, but bear the control mark and are marked with the fineness mark in compliance with the standard established in the “Precious Metal Product Act”
- Precious metal articles marked with any Sponsor’s Mark of the State EU member, which allow identifying the person (enterprise) responsible for item quality and precious metal content and with Fineness Mark in thousandth-system (Fineness mark may be different from those established in Estonia)
- watches, watch cases and attached bracelets made of precious metal that bear the common control mark (CCM mark)
- precious metal articles that are too small for marking
- precious metal articles sold for restoration or remolding