Turn a ring over and look inside the shank, near where it curves. If you have decent light and good eyes, you will see tiny marks stamped into the metal. They look like trivia, but they are actually the most documented part of the piece. A hallmark is a maker's signature, a material certificate, and a kind of provenance all at once.
The marks you are most likely to see
Metal purity. This is the mark that tells you what you are wearing. Gold is stamped in karats—10k, 14k, 18k—or sometimes as a three-digit number such as 750, which means 75% pure gold (equivalent to 18k). Platinum is usually marked Pt950 or 950 Plat, indicating 95% pure platinum. These numbers are not decoration; they are a promise about alloy content, and a reputable maker will not stamp a number the metal does not meet.
Maker's mark. This is the jeweller's own stamp—a set of initials or a small symbol unique to the workshop that made the piece. It is the equivalent of a painter's signature. On a mass-produced ring it may be a manufacturer's logo. On a bespoke piece it is the individual bench jeweller's mark, and it is how the piece can be traced back to the person who made it decades from now.
Assay or town marks. Depending on where the piece was made, there may be additional marks from an independent testing office. Not every region requires them, so their absence is not necessarily a red flag—but when they are present, they mean the metal was independently verified.
What a bespoke piece's marks should say
A custom ring from an atelier should carry at least two things: the metal purity mark and the maker's own stamp. If you commissioned a 14k gold ring, the inside should read 14k (or 585) alongside the maker's initials. It may also carry a date letter or a small symbol specific to the studio. Ask about these marks when you collect your piece—a maker who is proud of the work will show you where their mark sits and what it means.
What the marks do not say
A hallmark verifies the metal. It does not grade the diamond, certify the setting quality, or prove that the piece was made by hand. Those claims live elsewhere—in a diamond certificate for the center stone, and in the relationship you build with the maker. If you want to understand what to ask about the actual craft, our guide to questions for a bespoke jeweller covers the practical side that stamps cannot tell you.
A note on missing marks
How stamps wear over decades
Stamps are tiny impressions stamped into a relatively soft metal, so they wear. On a band worn every day for thirty years, the inside stamps can fade to near-invisibility simply from contact against the skin and against itself. If you inherit an older ring whose stamps are hard to read, that fading is normal wear, not evidence of fakery. A jeweller can acid-test or X-ray the metal to confirm purity if you ever need certainty—the stamp was never the last word, just the first record. If you are commissioning a new piece, ask where the maker will place the stamp so it sits on a low-wear area and remains readable for the life of the ring.
Plated pieces and their stamps
One subtlety worth knowing: a rhodium-plated white gold ring is still stamped 14k or 18k on the gold underneath, not on the rhodium. The stamp refers to the base metal, which is the metal you actually own. Do not be confused by pieces that appear silver-white but carry a gold karat stamp—that is normal, and it is the base alloy doing the talking. If you want to understand how plating fits into the picture, our guide to rhodium finishing walks through it in plain terms.
Why we stamp our own work
On a bespoke piece, the maker's mark is the part that matters most to us. It is how a future owner—decades from now, when we are no longer at the bench—can trace the ring back to the hand that made it. That is why the stamp is placed on a low-wear part of the shank, sized to be legible under a loupe, and applied before the final polish. It is not a legal requirement in every region, but it is a professional one. If you ever inherit or resell a piece from us, that mark is the shortest path to its history.
If a piece arrives with no stamps at all, treat it as a question, not a verdict. Some truly handmade pieces are stamped by hand and sit faintly inside a wide shank; some small workshops use marks that are easy to miss. Ask to see them under magnification. A transparent maker will produce a loupe and show you. A vague answer is the thing to notice—not the absence of the stamp itself.
