On , in rec.crafts.jewelry ospam (Kaytee) wrote:

And, additionally, have to pay for the American (or whatever) hallmark....

Kaytee,

There is no additional cost of "american hallmarks", simply because there isn't
really any such thing. A hall mark gets it's name from the fact that in
england, gold is quality marked by a seperate government entity. If I recall,
originally this was run (and may still be. Any of you brits care to fill this
bit in?) by the worshipful company of goldsmiths, also sorta known as goldsmiths
HALL, thus a hall mark. Or so I understand. Well, the actual bit of facts
there may be off or a bit fanciful, but the idea is that the mark is from the
authority of someone in office or by appointment from the government, rather
than the maker. That entity charges a modest fee to test the pieces and stamp
them for you.

In the U.S., there is no comparible setup. Manufacturers do all their own
stamping. The only cost invovled would be the wages one pays one's workers to
spend time stamping the stuff, along with all the other tasks of making the
jewelry.

Since the U.S. marking laws require stamps that are fully fullfilled by British
hallmarks, a U.S. maker selling items here that carried British hallmarks would
have nothing else that would be needed to be stamped, other than perhaps a U.S
registered trademark, if the makers mark that was part of the british hallmark
wasn't also the U.S. registered trademark. In all likelyhood, nothing else
would need to be stamped on the work for sale in the U.S., and if it did, the
maker would do it themselves, for little or no additional cost.

Peter