Aosdàna is proud to be part of the Edinburgh Assay Office's Assay Assured Scheme. This means that you can buy our jewellery with confidence and trust, knowing that our descriptions of precious metal content are accurate and that all of the products in the Aosdàna jewellery collection are verified independently by the Assay office in Edinburgh, through the 700 year old practice of hallmarking. You can view our Certificate of Conformity here.

In the manufacture of jewellery and silverware, precious metals are not used in their purest forms and instead are alloyed with other metals. Hallmarking refers to the independent verification of our precious metal content. The hallmark is only applied after the item has been assayed to determine that its purity conforms not only to the standards set down by the law but also with our claims as to metallurgical content.

Our hallmarking allows our customers to identify the precious metal make-up of a jewellery piece. It is not possible to discern by sight of touch alone what the precious metal of an alloy is, and so the hallmark acts as your guide to the content of the piece. All Aosdàna jewellery is made using 926 recycled Sterling Silver, 9ct or 18ct gold unless otherwise commissioned.

Legal Terminology

The 1973 Hallmarking Act makes it unlawful to describe an item over a certain weight as gold, silver, platinum or palladium without an independent Hallmark. All Silver articles weighing more than 7.78 grams must be hallmarked and all gold articles weighing more than 1 gram must be hallmarked. Articles below these exemption weights may be described as Gold, Silver, Palladium or Platinum without the need for a hallmark.

More information can be found in this video from Edinburgh Assay Office.