From todays postbag:  

 

 

 

Dear Anne,

 

The charms arrived today in perfect shape and I am very happy with them!

They are the beginning of my new collection/charm bracelet.  Many thanks for the careful packaging. 

 

I am new to travel charm collecting and I have a couple of questions I was hoping you could answer, please.  I noticed that the London and York charms have hallmarks and “sterling silver made in England”, respectively, on their

reverse.  The Canterbury and Bath charms are marked “silver”.   Do you know

if the charms marked simply “silver” were generally made in the UK as well?

And by “silver” is the connotation “sterling

My Reply:

 

There can be all sorts of marks on the backs of silver charms and enamel travel shields and many are completely unmarked as the law does not require any hallmarking on silver until an item weighs 7 grams and most charms just weigh 2 or 3 grams.

 

Under the 7 gram weight limit is up to the maker how they choose to mark their charm. Whilst some are left blank many choose to add ” Silver” or “sterling”. Silver comes is several grades. “sterling is the .925 grade used by British silver jewellery makers . This means that anything British marked silver or sterling will be made of .925 siver.

 

You may come across .800 on some foreign charms this is because they are made of a lower grade of silver. It is very rare to find a full set of silver hallmarks on a charm.

Do let me know which other charms you are looking for and I will check my stock to see if I have any for your charm bracelets.