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 Mark
the Year 2000 in style with one of our Millennium Wedding
Rings, stamped with an official UK millennium hallmark. We
have a range of heavy weight rings in our Gold
Section, marked with the Millennium Hallmark, as well
as Sterling Silver
Objects in our Luxury Gifts Section.
The
UK Millennium Mark
The mark is based
on the Christian symbol of the cross. According to the UK
assay office, this symbol will be struck from 1st January,
1999 to 31st December, 2000.
History of
Hallmarks
 The
Hallmarking of gold and silver items has been undertaken in
the United Kingdom since 1327, when the reigning king decreed
that no wares of silver or gold could be sold until it had
been taken to the headquarters of the guardians of the craft
and tested. If approved the article was struck with a mark
guaranteeing the purity of the metal - the King's Mark.
To help identify the assayer
responsible, an assay mark or date letter was added to the
King's Mark and the Maker's Mark. The date letter became an
upper or lower case letter of the alphabet.
 This
was to protect the consumer and 700 years later this tradition
still applies. Since those times it has been a punishable
offence to offer for sale any article purporting to be made
of a precious metal unless it bears the stamp (Hallmark) of
one of the recognised Assay Offices. Until as the late eighteenth
century, the penalty for counterfeiting the Hallmark was death,
It was then changed to 14 years transportation to a penal
colony. Now the maximum penalty is 10 years imprisonment.
The use of commemorative hallmarks
have been relatively rare in the UK, and have included such
events as:
- The Silver Jubilee of George
V and Queen Mary
- The Coronation mark of
Queen Elizabeth in 1953
- The Silver Jubilee mark Queen
Elizabeth in 1977
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