The Hallmarking Act: then and now

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Since time immemorial, gold and silver have been the ideal means of exchange. These metals are imperishable, compact, rare and therefore valuable. At first, exchanging or paying with a lump of gold or silver was rather cumbersome. The value of such a lump had to be determined again every time by weighing it and working out the actual amount of pure precious metal, since it usually contained an admixture of base metal. To make trade simpler, people hit on the idea of stamping pieces of gold and silver of a fixed weight and precious metal fineness on behalf of the ruling sovereign. Money as a universal means of exchange was born. The first known coins were struck around 700 BC in Lydia. Most people who had become rich also wanted to show it. They had gold- and silversmiths make fine objects from their money. In times of hardship, these objects could be taken to the Mint to be turned back into money. That, however, also created a lucrative and simple opportunity for fraud: the dishonest silversmith pocketed a number of coins and, so that this would not be noticed, added a corresponding amount of copper to the coins he melted down and worked into objects. This fraud was usually noticed only by the mint master, when the objects were handed in to be turned back into money.

To combat this fraud, King Philippe le Hardi (the Bold) of France decreed on 20 December 1275 that large Parisian silver works had to carry a "contremarque", or town mark. To this end, the members of the Paris guild had to put forward wardens. The maker's mark probably arose around this time, although the first mention of a "suum signum proprium" has been found only in an ordinance of 1355, so that the fraudsters could be identified. In London, the town mark "teste de leopart" was introduced in the year 1300 by King Edward Longshanks. In 1363 the maker's mark was made compulsory there. This turned out not to be enough, however, because a warden could be incompetent or could be bribed. The warden's mark, or date letter, was therefore later added to the maker's mark and town mark, so that the warden could be identified too.

In our country this example was followed: in Utrecht the town mark and the maker's mark in 1382, in Amsterdam the maker's mark, the town mark and the date letter in 1469. In between and afterwards, other towns drew up similar rules. At first, assaying and stamping gold and silver was a matter each town arranged for itself. The first more or less national law for the Burgundian Netherlands dates from 14 December 1489. Most of this "placard" concerns the reform of the coinage. Laying down the compulsory precious metal finenesses and hallmarking gold and silver was inevitably tied to it. Because fraud continued all the same, similar placards were issued in 1501, 1502, 1520 and 1551. After the Northern Netherlands had thrown off the Burgundian-Spanish yoke and bound themselves together through the Union of Utrecht into the federal Republic of the Seven Provinces, the old placards mostly remained in force.

Further provincial laws were introduced in Holland (1661), Friesland (1695) and Zeeland (1696), which also ordered the provincial mark to indicate the highest precious metal finenesses. In the other provinces and the Generality Lands, the way of assaying and stamping remained a matter for the local authorities.

In 1795 the Seven Provinces were conquered by the French and the Batavian Republic was proclaimed. For this "liberation", France demanded and received, among other things, compensation of fl. 100,000,000. To pay this sum, a great deal of extra money had to be minted. For this, all citizens had to hand in their gold and silver, except for certain quantities of spoons and forks, jewels and watches. Shopkeepers and goldsmiths, on the other hand, were allowed to keep their stock. The guilds were abolished and banned in 1798. To keep mutual quality control in place all the same, a number of guilds were allowed to carry on more or less as so-called "abolished" or "former" guilds. This applied, among others, to the guilds of gold- and silversmiths, pewterers, bakers and butchers. In the year 1800 a law was published to bring the gold and silver finenesses and the way of hallmarking into line. This law remained a dead letter, however, because nobody complied with it.

After the Kingdom of Holland was proclaimed in 1806 under King Louis Napoleon, a national hallmarking act was issued on 11 March 1807 that brought uniformity to precious metal finenesses and hallmarks. This act was drawn up on the French model. From mid-1807, as in France, tax had to be paid on new and old precious metal items to be sold. Because King Louis was headstrong and did not follow the orders of his brother the Emperor to the letter, he was forced to abdicate in 1810. After that, the Netherlands was annexed by France.

In 1811 and 1812 the French hallmarking act of 9 November 1797 (19 Brumaire year 6) was introduced here. On the whole there was little protest, because the French tax on gold and silver was considerably lower.

After the French defeat at Leipzig, our country was liberated between the end of 1813 and the beginning of 1814. William I was proclaimed sovereign prince. He largely maintained French legislation, including the hallmarking act of 9 November 1787. His decree of 26 December 1813 did, however, change the precious metal finenesses and replace the French hallmarks with Gallic cockerels by marks with Dutch lions. Once the vacancies had been filled and the new hallmarking punches made, the existing assay offices were reopened.

With effect from 1 January 1853, the outdated French hallmarking act was replaced by a new Dutch act. This act of 18 September 1852 is, in amended form, still in force. As a result of the Benelux treaty, the hallmarking tax was abolished in 1953. At the same time, the gold and silver finenesses were brought into line with international standards, and the hallmarking of platinum was introduced. In 1987 the assay office was privatised, and since 1988 it has been concentrated in a single office in Gouda.

In the past, people tried to pass items off as hallmarked by stamping them with forged hallmarks, or by sawing hallmarks out of an item to be scrapped and soldering them into the new one. That saved them the assay fee and the tax. What is more, these items could be made from precious metal of a low fineness. In this way people made considerable profits. These crimes were severely punished. In the year 1816, for example, a father and son in Leeuwarden were sentenced to a fine of 200 francs, flogging, being put on public display on the scaffold, seven years in a house of correction and the posting of the sentence throughout the province. Sentences of this kind were also posted in all assay offices, as a lesson to the "schatpligtigen" (those liable to the tax). The Reveilles had forged the small sword mark. Such a conviction also meant a "declaration of infamy". This meant the loss of civil rights and being placed under guardianship.

Around 1865, interest in antique gold and silver arose, above all in England. Several highly skilled silversmiths responded to this by "making antiques" and giving these items imitation guild hallmarks. If those items also bore a valid Dutch hallmark, the assay office could do nothing about it. In the French period, and then again in 1816, all the old hallmarks had been declared null and void, "as being bare of all hallmarks". In Schoonhoven, too, quite a few items were given fake guild marks (after hallmarking at the assay office), but those marks were at most good enough to mislead the English customs. In the United Kingdom, import duty and assay fees had to be paid on new silverware, but not on antique silver. Since 1988, forgeries of this kind can be prosecuted, because in that year the old hallmarks were recognised by the state once again.

In 1938, on the initiative of Mr B.J.J. van Baaren, inspector of the assay office in Utrecht, the Dutch Hallmarking Museum (Nederlands Waarborgmuseum) was founded. The present precious metal collection of the Dutch Silver Museum in Schoonhoven (Nederlands Zilvermuseum Schoonhoven) grew out of it. The hallmarking collection is still an important part of the museum's presentation. Nowhere else in the Netherlands is there the opportunity to learn so extensively and completely about the history of hallmarking.

The Hallmarking Act of 1986 (in Dutch) came about with the same thinking as before: the consumer had to be protected against forgeries. The act requires certain precious metal items to be assayed by assay offices designated for the purpose, and prohibits the sale of these items if they do not carry a hallmark.

When bringing precious metal items to the attention of the public, the description of the item has to take account of the permitted and prohibited terms.
A business is prohibited from bringing to the attention of the public any item other than one that at least meets the lowest fineness applying to the precious metal concerned under article 1, using the words precious metal, platinum, gold or silver, or in such another way that it can reasonably be inferred that the item is a platinum, gold or silver item.
(Notice in the Government Gazette, in Dutch)

Failure to comply with the Hallmarking Act is regarded as an economic offence. Compliance with the Hallmarking Act is supervised by the Metrology and Hallmarking department of the Radiocommunications Agency (Agentschap Telecom). Precious metal items are checked for statutory hallmarks during unannounced visits. The designated officials are authorised to enter a home without the occupant's permission. If a breach of the Hallmarking Act is found, this can lead to high fines, among other things.

The current Hallmarking Act 2019 (in Dutch) came into force on 1 July 2020 and replaces the Hallmarking Act 1986. Its objective is still the same as before: to protect the consumer against forgeries and to combat unfair trade. The act requires precious metal items above a certain weight to be given a hallmark by assay offices designated for the purpose before they may be sold.
The current Hallmarking Regulations (in Dutch) differ from the previous ones in, among other things, how filled items are to be hallmarked (Hallmarking Act 2019, articles 3 and 5). The current act adds fineness hallmarks for platinum (900 and 850 thousandths), and the iridium content may no longer be counted as platinum when determining the fineness. Finally, the designated assay offices have to be accredited under the ISO 17020 and 17025 standards.
Under article 1 of the act, palladium, as well as gold, silver and platinum, is a precious metal. For the purposes of the act, however, only gold, silver and platinum have to be hallmarked.