Grandmother’s Wedding Band
Grandmother’s Wedding Band: My grandmother’s wedding ring has 5 symbols… (she married circa 1920 in London)
Pocket Ed. Jackson’s Hallmarks
Price: $8.33 USD
These are the Marks on the ring…
First ACCo
then a crown
then 22
then an anchor on its side
then A
can you suggest where I might find out their meaning?
thanks… Cathy
You will find my answer below….
Your Band has the most classic UKHM (United Kingdom Hall Marks) anyone can get and they are very easy to find.
A good Hallmarking Book (as suggested above) would give you the answer, but lets go through each of these steps one by one because you are already past the first hurdle - knowing which country it came from (Great Britain).
They have been hallmarking jewelry since 1300AD - YES! 700 years ago - Phew…
Your first mark is simply the Maker’s Mark and might be a Store name like Angus and Coote and Company (this is NOT their mark which is A&C - but you get the point).
But it is the other marks which are more telling…
Article Continued Below…
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Article Continued…
The Crown is the Quality Mark which was introduced in 1798 for both 18ct and 22ct and was the governments way of telling the people that this item had been tested and passed for that grade or quality.
The 22 simply means it is 22 carat gold (pure gold being 24 carat). It is just about the very best you can buy especially in wedding rings.
The anchor is the Assay Office Mark for Birmingham (Large city in Midlands area of England). This is still a MAJOR manufacturing area for jewelry, selling their items all over the world.Even though your Grandmother was Married in London - the ring was made in Birmingham.
The letter A is the date letter and indicates the exact date the item was made.
However you are missing TWO MOST important pieces in the puzzle - and the first is what STYLE the letter A is in? Could it be Uppercase - Lowercase - Old English Style etc - As these Date letters change every 20 or so years, each with it’s own special design to help track the era.
And the other part is WHAT SHAPE is the actual stamp?
Each Hallmark might be in an OVAL frame - or Square with the Corners cut off - or in a Shield shape etc…
Again these factors help to pin down the actual date.
There thankfully is one piece of logic we could use.
You!
How old are you? - Work out from that how old your parents were. From that you should be able to get a rough idea (or you probably have the exact date) when your Grandmother Married.
From this - we can look at the series of date letters in the Hallmark book to find the correct ‘Batch’ and get the exact date of Manufacture.
Remember the ring MAY have been made a couple of years before it was sold in the shops - so don’t expect the date of the wedding to be the same as the date on the ring.
One other point is - the ring MAY not be the original ring? The Date letters suggest either 1900 or 1925.
I hope you enjoyed this VERY quick Hallmarking Lesson, so don’t forget to add the details to our Jewelry Appraisals Online Form when you eventually get around to valuing your own jewelry.
If you did, you can get a short Home Study Course for Free at my other website at the Antique Jewelry Fair.
Hope this helps. David
Tags: 22 carat gold, assay office, ed jackson, great britain, hallmarks, pure gold, quality mark, wedding band, wedding rings
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