The difference between Britannia metal and Pewter

If you enjoy antiques and like watching TV programmes such as Bargain Hunt and Antiques Road Trip, you might have noticed that the experts often talk about Pewter and Britannia Metal.


But what actually is it and where does it come from?

Pewter is a metal alloy. It is made predominantly from tin (between 85% - 99%) and a mix of other metals including antimony, bismuth copper and lead.

Pewter has been used since the Bronze Age and is extremely workable. Pewter religious objects were very common in churches from the Middle Ages. Pewter was also the main type of tableware until porcelain became more common and a popular material for candlesticks, tankards, platters, plates and similar objects. 

It is generally regarded as having it’s heyday in the 17th Century and pewter dating from this time and earlier can be very valuable and collectable. 

However, pewter remains popular today, especially for commemorative items and you can still find new pewter tankards and ornaments on sale.

British and Irish pewter generally carries marks, which can be used to identify the maker and date of manufacture. There are six types of pewter marks that you can use to help identify pewter but it is an imprecise science.

1.  A quality mark such as a rose, crown or X . These marks were not applied after the 1700s. Later quality marks may include slogans such as made in London.

2. Initials or names and a date – known as a touch mark.

3. Hallmarks similar to silver hallmarks, which usually contain pictures. Make sure you do not mistake your pewter piece for solid silver!

4. If there are any words or measurements on the pewter it is considered a makers mark and may help you identify the age of the pewter by the lettering style.

5. You may find a maker’s name or address somewhere on the pewter which is known as a pot touch mark.

6. If you find initials displayed in a triangular shape it is a mark of ownership which has been applied by the owner of the pewter.
In general, the large letter refers to the initial of the surname and the smaller letters refer to the initials of the husband and wife. This type of marking often denotes that the pewter dates from the 18th century.



Britannia Metal

Britannia Metal is technically a form of pewter but does not contain lead. It was favoured because of its white appearance and was first known as white metal. Britannia Metal contains antimony tin and copper and it was first used commercially by Sheffield manufacturers from around 1769.

Britannia metal can look very similar to silver, especially when it is highly polished so make sure you check the hallmark first. Britannia Metal can also look very similar in appearance to pewter, especially if it has dulled in colour. It was used for a variety of purposes such as tea services , and can be seen as having its heyday  in the 19th century.

Britannia metal is often used as a base metal for electro plating silver objects and is marked on British hallmarks as EPBM – Electroplated Britannia Metal.

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Difference between Britannia metal and Pewter 

When you are buying gold and silver on eBay, you must be careful.

Good-looking images and glowing descriptions seem to work better in these categories than any others and it is easy to get carried away.

Some sellers are just plain tricksy, others just don’t know what they are selling so make genuine mistakes in their descriptions, but in between these, you can find reputable sellers offering good deals.

You need to ensure that they are reliable before you part with cash so be sure to check their feedback and don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Here are a few of the most misleading terms you can find. Quite often, these apply to new gold and silver jewellery items.

“Sterling silver plate” or “sterling silver filled”- misleading descriptions that sound so much better than “silver plate” or silver filled.”

Sterling silver has to be hallmarked and contain 92.5% (925) silver content, however sellers sometimes use the word “sterling” as a general description for silver.

Sterling silver items cost more than items described as silver-plated or silver filled so, sellers attract more customers by creating this confusion.

The proper term for these items is "silver plated" or "silver filled."

Silver filled means it is a base metal with a layer of plate silver. There should be 10% silver content of the weight but this may not be the case.

Silver Plated refers to any base metal that is plated with a layer of pure silver.

“Gold filled sterling silver” is a meaningless and misleading phrase.

Is it gold plated sterling silver? Or is it gold coloured silver plate? Or what?

Nine times out ten if you ask the seller, he or she won’t know either. So probably best to avoid anything using this description.



"Gold filled" and "Rolled gold" are other nice sounding descriptions that make the object on offer seem valuable.

This is basically gold plate but technically speaking, the weight of rolled gold should make up 1/20 of the total metal weight and it may come with a hallmark.

If it does have a hallmark, you can check it out with the hallmark guide but be aware that the item is not solid gold so the gold content is not as high as it looks.



Gold plate should have a hallmark that signifies it as such.

Nickel silver is another misleading term.

Nickel silver is not really silver at all but an alloy usually made of nickel copper and zinc and sometimes containing a tiny silver content of around 2%.

This low value material is often described as Alpaca Silver and is commonly used in jewellery.

It looks good but it is not really silver at all and in addition, Alpaca silver is not hypo allergenic as is sometimes advertised.

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A Guide to buying Silver and Gold on eBay

How to be a Hedge Fund Manager

A financial journalist Alfred W. Jones first referred to "hedged funds" in 1949.

To counteract the effect of the markets rise and fall, Jones balanced his portfolio by buying assets whose price he thought would rise, and selling assets whose price he thought would decrease.

Now, a hedge fund is a sum of money that can used to buy or sell anything by investment or trading that is agreed to and funded by a wider range of investors.

Generally Hedge funds are used by institutions such as foundations, pension funds or private individuals who are used to investing large scale resources and have the financial worth to back it up.

These investments are taken care of by a Hedge Fund Manager.

The Hedge Fund Managers sole job responsibility is to make the invested money into profitable returns, through a wide range of investments and trading options for the members of the hedge fund.

So How do you become a hedge fund manager.

As an example suppose you set up an official company called  MAKin MONEY corp.

You would get an operating agreement written that states the management of the investments and your fee for doing it.

lets say you decide you want 25% of any profit made over 5% of the original investment.

Next you need investors


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 An investor puts 100 million into the hedge fund brokeridge account and you invest the money into anything that makes the company profit.

Risk adjustment comes into the equation but you invest the money and within a year the money doubles.

When the pay out time comes you get the first 5% of the profit removed and given to the investor.
This leaves 95 million of profit of which you are entitled to 25% or 23 million seven hundred and fifty thousand.

Not bad for a year. . . .

There is also often an agreement made in the agreement called the 2 - 20 rule.

This means that the hedge fund manager is owed 2% of assets and 20% of profits. This could mean that if the company lost money the manager is still owed 2% of assets.

Should you start your own hedge fund?

In theory anyone could become a hedge fund manager or hedge fund investor but you would have to have the capital to do it.

But hedge funds are notorious for bad publicity and hedge fund managers can often be seen in the media taking huge bonuses for investments that loose money.



Hedge funds are not sold to the public or retail investors, so you would have to be registered as a company and only certain types of investors that specified by regulators are allowed to join the hedge fund.

Regulations passed in the United States and Europe after the 2008 credit crunch were intended to improve governments overview of hedge funds and to stop regulatory gaps.

Hedge funds are complicated there are so many strategies that it can be hard for investors to fully understand the agreement without sound financial knowlledge or just blind faith.

Hedge fund reporting is minimal and can be done to mislead investors or misrepresent performance entirely.

Great care and outside advice on verification needs to be taken before investing.




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How to be a Hedge Fund Manager

How to find Valuable Hallmarked Silver

If you are interested in gold and silver, the hallmark can be as interesting as the object itself. 

It can tell you a lot about the history of your item and the fact that some hall marks are rare, will add value beyond the base value of the metal and the beauty of the craftsmanship.


Some collectors form whole collections around certain assay offices or hallmarks and look out for certain hall marks because of their rarity value.

There are four assay offices in Great Britain operating today. These are Birmingham - the largest assay office in the world, Edinburgh, London and Sheffield.

There is also an assay office in Dublin, which continues to hallmark in the approved British way despite Irish independence in 1923.

However, there are many other assay offices, which are no longer in operation and these hallmarks can be rare.

Assay offices no longer in operation are Chester, Exeter Newcastle, York, Glasgow and Cork in Ireland.

In addition, some hallmarks refer to special events or years and these also have a rarity value which is reflected by the price.


So which are the hall marks to look out for?

Anything bearing the city arms mark of Chester especially if it is early.

Although Chester silver had been made and marked as such for centuries, Chester was granted with its own assay office in 1700.

Silver hallmarked in Chester is rare because no silversmiths were operating in the town after 1820.

The abundance of Chester hallmarks on silverware dating from 1880 to 1930 is because silversmiths working in Manchester and Liverpool sent it to the Chester Assay Office for hallmarking

Duty marks can also be rare. In 1784, legislation was bought in to record that duty of 6d an ounce had to be paid on valuable metals.

A mark depicting the sovereign’s head was an extra mark added to the hallmarks between 1784 and 1890, an excise on gold and silver articles was collected by the Assay Offices and a mark depicting the Sovereign’s head was struck to show that it had been paid.

In 1890, the tax was removed but the sovereign’s head has continued to be added to hallmarks on a voluntary basis.



The Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977 was marked with a special hallmark, the Millennium followed in 2000 and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee will be marked with a commemorative hallmark.

All these commemorative hall marks are collectable and seem likely to increase in value in the future.
The rarest duty mark is a figure of Britannia, which was used on export gold and silver.

This was struck for only 9 months between Dec 1st 1784 and July 1785 and because it was struck on finished wares, risked damage to the object so was soon discontinued.

This is the rarest of gold and silver hallmarks and will increase the value of the object considerably.

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How to find Valuable Hallmarked Silver?

Get the best price for gold

Valuing your scrap gold for selling.

The TV and the internet is awash with adverts offering to buy your old gold but most people have no idea what to sell or even what it is worth.

Some of these gold companies are less than scrupulous and many people have been ripped off. Unless you are careful, it is very easy to make costly mistakes so the seller needs to beware.

Before you sell any gold for scrap value, you need to know exactly what you have, i.e. the carat value and the weight.

The easiest way to do this yourself, is to first check the hallmark (use a hallmark guide), assess the carat value, and weigh the gold on scales.

Most UK gold is nine carat – only 37.5 % pure gold and will be accordingly marked

Check these first!

• 375 on the hallmark.
• 18 carat gold contains 75% gold so will be marked 750.
• 24-carat gold is exceedingly rare because it is too soft for jewellery. This is usually marked 999 or thereabouts.

You also need to check the makers mark because some gold hallmarks add value to the price of the gold.

If you are weighing your gold yourself, you need accurate scales. Kitchen scales are not precise enough because they need to accurately measure 1/100 of a gram.

However, these types of scales are not expensive and will be a worthwhile investment, especially if you have a lot of broken jewellery.

Remember that gold items weighing under a gram, such as earring butterflies do not have to carry a hallmark but will still add to the price.

So what sort of gold can you sell? 

Broken jewellery , broken chains , singleton gold earrings, butterfly backs - worth approximately £2.00, odd cuff links, unfashionable gold jewellery you hate, presents from exes stuck in your drawer, broken brooches.

Old gold teeth that you may have had replaced or the wedding ring from your ex. The list is endless.

When you sell gold for scrap, make sure that it is worthless in its original form. Anything with antique or intrinsic value will probably fetch much better prices than the scrap value.

Make sure you weigh your scrap gold accurately and document the purity value. Perhaps put 18carat in one plastic bag, and 9 carat in another.

If you are sending it to a postal gold buyer, photograph it so that you have an accurate record of what was sent and send it by recorded delivery in a padded envelope.

Although some of the better quality postal gold dealers may offer a good return, you need to have accurate proof of the weight. There have been many examples of underweight valuations.

The reputable postal gold dealer will always give you a quote before they proceed with melting your gold and sending your payment.

Some of the better postal gold buyers offer a good return and price for used gold that exceeds what you may expect to get from a local jeweller, so this may be something to look into.

Identify gold and silver hallmarks.

Montezuma’s gold – the missing Aztec treasure hoard.

Montezuma’s gold is believed to be a lost hoard of gold that the Aztecs buried in the 1500s in order to stop it falling into the Spanish conquistadors hands. It is fabled to be the biggest missing hoard in the world.

Hernan Cortez had arrived in Tenochtitlan in what is now Mexico, on November 8, 1519 and quickly set to killing everyone and destroying the city. The story is that the Aztecs hid their gold, Emperor Montezuma was taken prisoner by Cortez and killed and presumably, the location of the gold died with him.

However, in 1914, a man named Freddie Crystal arrived in Kanab a small town in Utah, with a map, he said he had found in a Spanish monastery and which he believed to be a treasure map to Montezuma’s gold.

The map featured distinctive geographic points, mountains, a cliff with stairs, a canyon, petroglyphs in the shape of ducks, mysterious Aztec symbols and more. Freddie Crystal and his entourage spent eight years searching the local area for the location with no luck at all despite digging exploratory mine shafts and holes all over the area. Most local people were sceptical.





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When Crystal and his entourage entered Johnson’s Canyon a small canyon located north of Kanab by White Mountain, the clues of the original treasure map began to make sense. They found the duck symbols and the cliff with stairs and the geographic clues all began to add up.

The treasure hunters set to work immediately but after two days hit a huge man made wall built from blue limestone. Once word of this got out in Kanab, the townspeople changed their attitude.

Kanab was gripped with treasure fever and the townspeople flocked to the site, setting up a camp at White Mountain. Crystal agreed to cut them all in for a percentage of the treasure when they found it, in return for work. After days of back breaking labour, they managed to break through the wall and entered a 160ft long tunnel, which led into a huge chamber under the mountain. It was empty.

Undeterred the treasure hunters discovered other blocked up tunnels and dug these out. They found a skeleton in another chamber and small artefacts but if there had ever been treasure, it was gone.

After two years and no treasure, the people of Kanab lost heart again and went back to their every day lives and Freddie Crystal just seemed to disappear without trace. Nobody knows what happened to him.

However, the story did not end there. A local Kanab man named Brandt Child, who had been involved with the treasure hunt as a young boy, had always believed in the idea of Crystal’s story and never gave up searching for the treasure.



In 1989 he was exploring Three Lakes Canyon area, about 10 miles away from White Mountain when he recognised what he thought was an Aztec sign carved into a sandstone cliff.

He decided to buy up all the land in the area including three lakes, one of which locals believed was haunted and bottomless but which turned out to be 35 ft deep.

Child had researched the Aztec's and believed that the treasure was likely buried in water. When interviewed in 1998 he explained that the Aztec's would dig a tunnel to a treasure hoard and then flood the entrance by damming a stream and creating a lake, drowning everyone involved in the work.

He estimated that there might be as much as 45,000 pounds of gold and approximately the remains of 8000 Aztec soldiers.

Brandt Child contracted a team of divers and began investigations. Apparently, weird and spooky things started happening. The dives were plagued with bad luck and inexplicable equipment failure and all the divers reported a choking sensation,  a strong sense of dread and of eerie figures surrounding them.

None of the divers were ever prepared to dive the lake again and each one reported the same terrifying experiences.

In another twist it turned out that the lake was the home of a very rare and protected species snail called the Oxyloma haydeni kanabensis - or the Kanab ambersnail.

Brandt Child was prevented from the disturbing the environment and the US Fish and Wildlife Service fenced off the lake.

Brandt Child was killed in mysterious circumstances in 2001 when his car hit a horse, which reputedly appeared from nowhere and some people believe there is a curse on the site and the treasure. Locals firmly believe that the area is haunted and that the horse that killed Brandt was some sort of ghostly apparition.

It is possible that Montezuma’s treasure is still down there somewhere and protected by the ghosts of the 8000 drowned Aztec warriors,  the US Fish and Wildlife Service and 10,000 endangered thumbnail sized snails.

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How to make profit on Antiques Road Trip

Mark Stacy and Anita Manning are the current competitors on the BBC TV show Antiques Road Trip.

Mark and Anita both trawl the local antiques shops trying to spot antiques that they think will have more value at an auction than the price they pay at the Antique shop.

There is some haggling, fixed grins and hands are thrown in the air until a deal is reached.

Then at the end of the show, the items are hauled off to Auction to see if they will make a profit.

The basic idea of this show seems the wrong way round to me. Going to Antique Shops to buy antiques and then selling the items back to an Auction House is the reverse of the way antiques traders work.

It's like going to Harrods for a chair and then selling it at a car boot sale!

In Bargain Hunt, a lunchtime programme featuring many of the same experts, two teams comprising of two shoppers and one expert buy from markets and antique fairs and then sell at Auction.

This at least gives them a chance of making a small profit. However, in reality, small profits of £2 -3 would probably not pay the auction house charges for selling the items.





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So how can you make this idea actually work for you?

Well you might not make a living at antiques and collectables, but you could certainly make a profitable hobby.

The experts on the antiques shows have a broad knowledge of the antiques market because of their experience and enthusiasm for the trade.

From expert Valuers like David Barby, to auctioneers like James Lewis, all the experts have inside knowledge of their business.

Every day they deal with the day-to-day business of buying, selling and valuing objects. This is ground level marketing and will lead to both experience and wisdom of the trade.

However, all of them have a specialist area where they have a detailed knowledge of their subject. A smaller range of items but very detailed.

This is how you too can become involved in antiques.

By choosing one small area of antiques, you can read and learn all you can from the front of a computer screen, books and by visiting local antiques shows and auction houses.

You can quickly gain the current values by checking auction sites like eBay against auction houses selling the same items.

You can find out about specialist auction houses and current trends in fashion.

It is easy to become an expert on your chosen subject by experiencing it from the internet, books and by talking to people involved in the business.

Most of all enjoy it! The important factor in this is you.

You must have an interest in the antiques you collect. You should like the items enough to want to have them in your own home.

If they end up in a box under your bed, you probably aren't that interested. Bargain Hunt expert James Lewis, specialises in snuff boxes. You can tell he loves the subject and he admits he has too many in his collection, but he always makes a profit because he knows his stuff!

Whatever your interest, you are not alone. If it is collectable, you'll find collectors somewhere wanting to buy it.

As long as you have a growing interest in your collecting hobby, your experience will gain and you should end up making small profits.

The Experts’ ability to understand all of these factors makes the difference on Antiques road trip

How to check quickly if a metal is silver?

Silver testing  - How to do it.

Solid silver or silver plate?

If you are interested in buying silver antiques, the first thing to do is to check out the hallmark (A gold and silver hallmark guide is ideal for this). 

If the piece been produced in the UK, your hallmark guide will date it and be able to pinpoint the region of manufacture.

Understanding the hallmark is important because silver plate is also hallmarked in Britain and at first glance, the mark can look similar so you need to be careful. 

An item which has been silver-plated has only a thin coating of silver of just a few microns plated onto a base metal. By contrast, a sterling silver item is made of solid 92.5 percent silver throughout. 

The difference in value between the two is enormous although in some cases it may be difficult to tell sterling silver from plate silver by eye alone.

What if there are no hallmarks visable?

If a piece of metal has no hallmarks it may still be silver or at least it may have a percentage of silver contained within it. There are home silver testing kits available for this.

Silver testing is not a difficult process and can be carried out by a jeweller or simply by yourself at home, by using a silver testing kit. This is easy to use and will tell you if your candlesticks are silver or silver plate.

Silver jewellery – is it really silver?

Today, there is a lot of imitation silver on the market - especially with the explosion of cheap jewellery flooding in from the third world. Although many of this cheap “silverware” ends up on the counter at inexpensive jewellers and on market stalls, you can find it in better jewellery shops and often for much higher prices than it is worth. 

Testing your supposedly solid piece of silver with a silver testing kit will ensure that you are not being sold a dud!

Is that a real Rolex?

Fakes, such as fake Rolex watches – can also turn up in surprising locations. They can look pretty good but often it is the silver content, or lack of it, which is the first sign to spotting a fake. Use a silver testing kit to check if your 1920s silver Rolex Oyster is really what it appears to be. 

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So what is a silver testing kit?

There are many kits available on the market to test all sorts of precious metals and they are easy to use. Silver reacts to nitric acid – the active component of the silver testing kit. When you test, try to pick an area on the piece that is not too noticeable because you first need to scratch the surface and then apply a drop of nitric acid to the area.

If the liquid turns green the item is silver plated. However if it turns grey, your item is silver.

Exact colouration will depend upon the kit that you use so you need to follow instructions carefully. 

You can use a small magnet will show if there is any steel content in your item. 















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What are Pieces of eight

Pieces of Eight – the Spanish Silver Dollar -The First Global Currency

Pieces of Eight or Spanish Silver dollars were originally part of Spanish currency. However, this monetary unit was spread rapidly around the world because of the huge Spanish empire first established in the 15th century and because of the wealth of South American silver mines that made Spain so rich.

By the mid 1500s, the piece of eight was also being called the Spanish silver dollar because it compared in value to the German silver coin, the Thaler.
.
Spain’s currency unit was based on coinage called the Real, which had been introduced in Spain in the 1300s. The famous piece of eight or peso de ocho was worth eight Reales and had an 8 stamped on the reverse of the coin.

Once the Spanish had discovered the valuable metal deposits of South America, they started to mint their coins in the New World. The silver was mined in the Spanish South American Empire in Mexico Lima and Bolivia.

Much of the silver used for the silver dollar, was extracted from the silver mountain of Potosi in Bolivia using thousands of Native American Indians and African slave labour in appalling conditions. You can identify coinage made in South America rather than Spain because it carries an image of the Pillars of Hercules.



The Spanish silver dollar was the most valuable of the silver coins and weighed about 1 oz. In 1566, the more valuable gold escudo was introduced, worth 16 Reales. The gold escudo was often called a doubloon – a slang word for any coin meaning double the value of another. 

Spanish Silver dollars can be seen as the World’s first Global currency. They were used in Spain and the far-flung reaches of the Spanish Empire and were accepted everywhere else as well. They were seen by most people as being most stable currency in the world because there were simply so many of them and because this currency was the one most used for trade.

Millions of dollars were minted over the centuries and they were the most widely used coinage of the American colonial period.

The golden age of piracy – between the 1650s to the 1730s did much spread this Spanish currency around and early trade in America was often carried out using silver dollars gained in illicit trading in the West Indies and because of a lack of British coinage.

When the Americans started minting their own coinage in 1792, the Spanish dollars remained more popular because of their higher silver content. They were still in use in America late into the 19th century where their value was equal to that of a US dollar.

How to identify Arts and Crafts Antiques

The Arts and Crafts movement was an international movement that started in England around 1860 and continued having an influence on style, decoration and ideals until the 1930s.

Led by artist and writer William Morris in turn inspired by writer John Ruskin, the movement began as a reaction against industrialisation and the inequalities of the Victorian Age. This philosophy as well as design movement embraced ideals of equality alongside the celebration of good quality craftsmanship.

The Arts and crafts movement was inspired by images from the medieval age and folklore and nature. It became fashionable and influenced architecture, art, household objects, decoration and jewellery.

Because the Arts and Crafts movement was all about individual craftsmanship, no two pieces are exactly the same although you may find similar designs. This makes it very interesting to collectors and can cause prices to vary.














In jewellery, natural themes such as animals, plants, insects and birds were very popular. Arts and Crafts jewellery tends to favour metals such as a copper, brass and silver over more expensive materials such as the gold and diamonds that were popular in the Victorian age.

Arts and crafts jewellery often contains semi precious gemstones chosen for their appearance rather than their value, and pearls, turquoise, jet and moonstones were popular.

You will often find that gemstones have been cut en cabouchon - which means that the stone is finished with a polished rounded surface rather than the multiple cuts and facets that you see in valuable gems such as diamonds and sapphires.

Enamelling is also very popular in arts and crafts jewellery. This process was pioneered by Edith and Nelson Dawson who used a small kiln and employed production techniques that dated back to the renaissance.

Otherwise CR Ashbee is one example of a jewellery maker to look out for. In 1888, he set up the Guild and School of Handicraft in London’s East End, which he modelled on the medieval guilds and ran as a craft co-operative before relocating the whole operation to Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire.

This guild produced some very fine pieces that can be characterised by intricate wire work, hammered silver and colourful gemstones.

Although well known designer pieces of jewellery fetch high prices, you can often pick up Arts and Crafts jewellery at very reasonable prices. Look out for good quality craftsmanship, the design and the condition of the piece and don’t forget to check for the hall mark.

Whats the difference between Britannia metal and Pewter

If you enjoy antiques and like watching TV programmes such as Bargain Hunt and Antiques Road Trip, you might have noticed that the experts often talk about Pewter and Britannia Metal.


But what actually is it and where does it come from?

Pewter is a metal alloy. It is made predominantly from tin (between 85% - 99%) and a mix of other metals including antimony, bismuth copper and lead.

Pewter has been used since the Bronze Age and is extremely workable. Pewter religious objects were very common in churches from the Middle Ages. Pewter was also the main type of tableware until porcelain became more common and a popular material for candlesticks, tankards, platters, plates and similar objects. 

It is generally regarded as having it’s heyday in the 17th Century and pewter dating from this time and earlier can be very valuable and collectable. 

However, pewter remains popular today, especially for commemorative items and you can still find new pewter tankards and ornaments on sale.

British and Irish pewter generally carries marks, which can be used to identify the maker and date of manufacture. There are six types of pewter marks that you can use to help identify pewter but it is an imprecise science.

1.  A quality mark such as a rose, crown or X . These marks were not applied after the 1700s. Later quality marks may include slogans such as made in London.

2. Initials or names and a date – known as a touch mark.

3. Hallmarks similar to silver hallmarks, which usually contain pictures. Make sure you do not mistake your pewter piece for solid silver!

4. If there are any words or measurements on the pewter it is considered a makers mark and may help you identify the age of the pewter by the lettering style.

5. You may find a maker’s name or address somewhere on the pewter which is known as a pot touch mark.

6. If you find initials displayed in a triangular shape it is a mark of ownership which has been applied by the owner of the pewter.
In general, the large letter refers to the initial of the surname and the smaller letters refer to the initials of the husband and wife. This type of marking often denotes that the pewter dates from the 18th century.



Britannia Metal

Britannia Metal is technically a form of pewter but does not contain lead. It was favoured because of its white appearance and was first known as white metal. Britannia Metal contains antimony tin and copper and it was first used commercially by Sheffield manufacturers from around 1769.

Britannia metal can look very similar to silver, especially when it is highly polished so make sure you check the hallmark first. Britannia Metal can also look very similar in appearance to pewter, especially if it has dulled in colour. It was used for a variety of purposes such as tea services , and can be seen as having its heyday  in the 19th century.

Britannia metal is often used as a base metal for electro plating silver objects and is marked on British hallmarks as EPBM – Electroplated Britannia Metal.

Why are some hallmarks more valuable than others?

If you are interested in gold and silver, the hallmark can be as interesting as the object itself. 

It can tell you a lot about the history of your item and the fact that some hall marks are rare, will add value beyond the base value of the metal and the beauty of the craftsmanship.


Some collectors form whole collections around certain assay offices or hallmarks and look out for certain hall marks because of their rarity value.

There are four assay offices in Great Britain operating today. These are Birmingham - the largest assay office in the world, Edinburgh, London and Sheffield.

There is also an assay office in Dublin, which continues to hallmark in the approved British way despite Irish independence in 1923.

However, there are many other assay offices, which are no longer in operation and these hallmarks can be rare.

Assay offices no longer in operation are Chester, Exeter Newcastle, York, Glasgow and Cork in Ireland.

In addition, some hallmarks refer to special events or years and these also have a rarity value which is reflected by the price.


So which are the hall marks to look out for?

Anything bearing the city arms mark of Chester especially if it is early.

Although Chester silver had been made and marked as such for centuries, Chester was granted with its own assay office in 1700.

Silver hallmarked in Chester is rare because no silversmiths were operating in the town after 1820.

The abundance of Chester hallmarks on silverware dating from 1880 to 1930 is because silversmiths working in Manchester and Liverpool sent it to the Chester Assay Office for hallmarking

Duty marks can also be rare. In 1784, legislation was bought in to record that duty of 6d an ounce had to be paid on valuable metals.

A mark depicting the sovereign’s head was an extra mark added to the hallmarks between 1784 and 1890, an excise on gold and silver articles was collected by the Assay Offices and a mark depicting the Sovereign’s head was struck to show that it had been paid.

In 1890, the tax was removed but the sovereign’s head has continued to be added to hallmarks on a voluntary basis.

The Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977 was marked with a special hallmark, the Millennium followed in 2000 and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee will be marked with a commemorative hallmark.

All these commemorative hall marks are collectable and seem likely to increase in value in the future.
The rarest duty mark is a figure of Britannia, which was used on export gold and silver.

This was struck for only 9 months between Dec 1st 1784 and July 1785 and because it was struck on finished wares, risked damage to the object so was soon discontinued.

This is the rarest of gold and silver hallmarks and will increase the value of the object considerably.

Are the Channel Islands still a Tax Free haven

Tax Free Gold

The Channel Islands are a tax haven with a unique relationship with the United Kingdom and Europe that dates back to the Norman Conquest.

The Islands are self-governing but are linked to the Crown and although they are not technically part of the EU, they are part of the European customs territory.

This means that although they trade freely with the UK and the rest of Europe they do not charge VAT.

Despite some tax havens being blacklisted by the European parliament urges tighter controls on tax havens, the investors situated in Jersey and Guernsey need not lose any sleep.



The Channel Islands already adhere to strict controls over money laundering and are signed up to the European savings directive aimed at curbing tax evasion in the EU.

The three largest Channel Islands of Alderney, Guernsey and Jersey all issue Proof gold coins, especially struck for collectors and to mark special occasions such as Royal weddings and anniversaries.

These coins are not meant for circulation and proof is not a grade of gold but a designation for coins that have been struck.

Proof gold coins are produced in limited amounts, so have a collectible value as well as possessing a fine gold content – some coins as high as .999 gold. Channel Island Proof coins are also available in base metal and fine silver.

The precious metal Proof coins rise in value over time and are a good source of funds if you need to quickly raise money. Buying proof gold or silver coins is a good way to build up a valuable investment.

Another way to invest in Channel Island gold is to buy gold bullion. You can purchase Fine gold bars from numerous companies and these come in sizes between 100g to 1 kilo. At the time of writing the price of a 100g bar costs £3,576

and a kilo weight £35,328.



The secret of the Pharaohs Gold

How to date English Hall Marks

BBC Bargain Hunt Tim Wonacott quotes Blooper





Although it is not obligatory and you are free to take your gold away after purchase you can choose to store your gold in the company’s secure storage facility for a nominal fee.

Many people prefer this option because of the obvious security issues but you can still see your gold. Some gold companies offer the option whereby you can visit your investment gold bar and look at it on line.

With the price of gold rising and looking a safer bet than many other investment options, this is proving to be growing in popularity.

Triplet Jewellers Loup 30x - £6.99 magnify your advantage

If you are searching for a present for the collector in your life, the Triplet Jewellers Loup is an ideal gift or stocking filler for anyone.

The pocket size fold away lens is an essential tool that has many uses. 

It is ideal for reading hallmarks or tiny markings, perfect for showing details not readily visible to the naked eye, and great for using on gold, silver, jewellery, ceramics, watches, stamps, glass or anything that someone may collect where careful examination is crucial.

The powerful lens magnifies x 30 so that even the tiniest marks will be clearly visible. 

The triple lens system ensures that there is no distortion in magnification making the tiniest objects or marks crystal clear and easy to see.

The triplet jeweller’s loupe can be packed away in its own stainless steel case and is so compact it can be kept in the pocket at all times or added to a key ring or neck chain. 

An ideal gift for the collector or antiques enthusiast – the professional triplet jeweller’s loupe is hard wearing and should last a lifetime.

For gold and silver collectors why not take advantage of the complete gold and silver buyer’s kit. 


The professional jeweller’s loupe combined with the downloadable guide to British hallmarks suitable for your e reader, android or mobile phone.




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 Gold and silver hallmarks main site

The Golden Secrets of the Pharaohs

In the Ancient Egyptian world, gold was believed to have magical powers and shine like the most important deity of the times,  
the Sun God Ra. 

He was believed to carry the sun on his head and gold was part of his flesh.

The Ancient Egyptians had the richest gold deposits in the known world which were located in the Nubian region or South Eastern desert. 

They extracted gold by crushing quartz rock or panning for it in the rivers.  Because of its sacred quality, all gold belonged to the Pharaohs and priests who used it for religious purposes to celebrate Ra.

Gold for the After Life

Craftsmen made the fine gold artefacts used to adorn palaces, temples and tombs as well as the jewellery worn by important and holy people of both sexes. 

Jewellery was usually buried with their owners. This belief in the afterlife and the wealth of grave goods found in tombs led to most graves being plundered in the intervening thousands of years.

The Gold of King Tutankhamen

The most famous collection of gold was found in the tomb of King Tutankhamen. Although he was only a boy king and relatively unimportant at the time, today he is the only Egyptian Pharaoh who most people can name.

It seems that following his death he was soon forgotten which may explain why his tomb had remained undisturbed and relatively intact. 

When it was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter and George Herbert the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, the discovery shook the world. 

The sarcophagus was covered in gold leaf and within that were three gold coffins nested together like Russian dolls. 

The final coffin, made of solid gold contained the mummified body of King Tut wearing the iconic solid gold death mask inlaid with jewels. 

His gold jewellery was also placed in the coffin and included amulets, bracelets and head jewellery, priceless beyond compare.

It led to a craze for all things Egyptian in the 1920s that has continued to the present day.

The Curse of the Mummy

Following discovery of the tomb, there were  rumours of an evil ancient curse being placed upon the heads of the discoverers of the tomb.   

Lord Carnarvon, the financial backer of the expedition died a year after the discovery of the tomb in Cairo from blood poisoning after shaving an infected mosquito bite.

However, Howard Carter lived safely for another 16 years before dying on natural causes in London.

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What does every cloud has a silver lining really mean?

Every cloud has a silver lining

This well-known phrase means that even a bad situation can have a good side.

It is usually said to someone to cheer them up in a bad situation and to offer encouragement to think positively.

Oh, you have broken all your plates – at least you won’t have to wash up later!

So why do we say it and where does it come from? After all clouds do not really have silver linings and are more likely to drop rain than shower good luck on those below.
 
The first time in literature that this phrase appears is in a 1634 poem by John Milton – Comus - A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle, and is more descriptive than proverbial.

Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night?
I did not err; there does a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night,
And casts a gleam over this tufted grove.

Literary references of the time talked about clouds and silver linings and even sometimes referred to them as Milton’s clouds.

However, in the Victorian Age, this poetic and descriptive device was turned into a proverb that became popular. The Victorian expression was "There's a silver lining to every cloud” or even the more lengthy "There's a silver lining to every cloud that sails about the heavens if we could only see it."

Over time this has changed to the more familiar “every cloud has a silver lining” 

It is a lovely idea that most bad situations often have something good that can be salvaged from them and making the best of things is generally a good trait.

But be warned – too much looking on the bright side in your friend’s hour of need can become extremely irritating. If your friend’s silver lining turns out to be telling you to butt out, your unrelenting optimism may have backfired.




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What is a Carat?

The quality of gold is measured in carats. As everybody knows, the higher the carat the better the quality of the gold but how do you measure it and what does it mean?

The word carat comes from the Arabic word qirat and means seed pod or husk, traditionally used to weigh small quantities.

The Greeks used the same measure and found it was the equivalent of a Roman measurement, the siliqua. This was one 24th of a gold Roman coin – the solidus of Constantine.

Today for gold measurement, this idea of the 24 units lives on.
However the amount of carats contained in gold  does not relate to the weight of the gold, just the purity.

By contrast, diamonds and precious gemstones also measured in carats, refer to weight. A gemstone carat weighs 0.2mg.

Gold is a very soft metal and used alone it is far too soft for many applications such as jewellery, as well as being expensive.

For these reasons it is usually mixed with another metal such as silver, copper or nickel to increase the hardness.


 The content of the gold is measured in units of 24ths or carats, sometimes spelt karats.

If a piece of jewellery is 18 carat gold this means that it is 18 parts gold and the remaining 6 units are made up of another metal. For nine-carat gold, the majority of the metal is base metal with only 9/24 of gold. This equals 37.5% gold or 375 parts per 1000. The weight of the gold does not affect the carat value.

Fine Gold
The purest gold available is 24 carat gold, also called fine gold. This means that out of the 24 units of gold, the full 24 are gold. To be more precise,  .9995 parts per 1000  or 99.95% is gold.

If this is converted to carats, it would be 23.988 carats or more likely 99.9% because of the residual impurities found in the metal.

The Royal Canadian Mint produce a .99999 fine gold coin which is advertised as the world's purest gold coin. Gold bars and ingots are classed as fine gold if they are over .995 which is 23.88 carats.





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