The date letter collection utilizes a strong British tradition tracing back to the 1930's which requires precious metals to be officially stamped by an assaying office.
A symbol represents the metal the piece is created in, and the date letter represents the year it was made, and by law is only available for that particular year.
We created a small selection of classic pieces, Signet rings, ingot necklaces and tiny gold bands which feature the date letter hallmark. Thus each piece becomes more rare year by year, there being a 26 year wait before this letter can be marked again.
Makers Mark - The registered mark of the company or person that submitted the article for hallmarking. In this case BK - Bernice Kelly our head designer. Each makers mark is unique and the list of makers registered stretches back centuries.
Traditional fineness symbol - The lion represents sterling silver and the crown represents gold.
Numerical fineness symbol - This symbol represents how fine, what metal quality the article is, expressed in parts per thousand. 925 indicates sterling silver. 585 indicates 14k gold
Assay office mark - This mark indicates which assay office tested and marked the article. In our case, the Leopards head is the symbol of the town of London, the home of hallmarking.
Date letter Mark - This letter changes annually on January 1st of each year.
We accentuate the date letter, and if you can find the perfect letter, it can represent a name or a year you want to commemorate.
2019 has the hallmark 'u',
2020 'v'
2021 'w' etc.
Are you lucky enough to have a 'k' from the very first year we started this conceptual series?
Ask us about our archive. We have a handful of older pieces, some of which may be subject to a surcharge depending on popularity.
