Explanatory note

These Regulations amend section 4 of, and Schedule 2 to, the Hallmarking Act 1973, which are principally concerned with the conditions under which articles of precious metals may be struck with approved hallmarks. The Regulations allow assay offices to omit, for practical reasons, the date letter from very small articles; permit the use of adhesives, as an alternative to solder, to join the parts of precious metal articles; and permit the use of solder in a wider range of white gold articles. Provision is also made to allow the hallmarking of articles made of platinum and gold, where the platinum is predominant by weight; to allow assay offices to omit the standard mark from any small working parts of an article where it is impracticable to strike a mark; and to require, in certain cases, the precious metal parts of articles consisting of precious metal and other materials to be of a thickness of at least 100 micrometres.