The Touchstone Award

The Touchstone Award, sponsored by the British Hallmarking Council, is one of a number of awards the BHC gives out each year. This award encourages Trading Standards Authorities to identify and take action against retailers who flout the law by selling jewellery with misleading descriptions.

Trading Standards is a network across the UK that focuses on national and regional consumer protection and enforcement, tackling rogue traders and dishonest businesses. The goal of all trading standards services is to ensure legitimate businesses can thrive and consumers can buy products with confidence.

Over the last 12 years of the Touchstone Award, findings detailed in applications clearly illustrate the need for both enforcement of and education about hallmarking. Fine jewellery is not an everyday purchase for most people, and it can be easy to cheat consumers if they don’t have an existing understanding of what a hallmark is and why it’s important.

Over a 6-month period in 2019, an online ebay trader sold over 400 ‘platinum and diamond’ engagement rings carrying a lone 950PT mark. This symbol is not a hallmark, but a manufacturers mark used in the trade. Many online retailers misleadingly list this symbol as a genuine hallmark, but it carries no legitimacy in the International Hallmarking Convention or British Hallmarking Convention. The item sold by this ebay trader retailed for £150. A test purchase made by the National Association of Jewellers revealed that the ring was made of Cubic Zirconia and silver, with a true retail value of £50. If the ring had actually been made of Platinum and diamonds, the value would have been nearer to £8,000.

The 2024 Touchstone Award was presented to Hull City Council at the recent conference of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute. Hull City Council have worked closely with Sheffield Assay Office to circumvent retailers profiting off mis-selling base metal jewellery. In 2023, suspicions rose for Hull City Council relating to an online trader selling large volumes of ‘gold’ chain from a residential address. Subsequent investigation revealed this to all be base metal. A search of the premises found enough stock to create 30,000 chains, all cut from a reel of chain and stamped afterwards. The total retail value of the seized chains amounted to £400,000, a huge potential loss of sales to honest jewellers.

The biggest weapon the jewellery trade has to combat rogue traders and those ignorant of the law is to educate and inform consumers. While the Touchstone Award has done much to raise the profile of hallmarking, educating consumers is essential in building a stronger and more resilient industry.

(Image: Presentation of the Touchstone Award to Hull City Trading Standards at the CTSI Conference in Leeds in June. L to R: Chris Wilson (City Trading Standards Officer), Ian Mattinson (Senior Trading Standards Officer), Rachel Stephenson (Head of Public Protection), Adam Jacobs (NAJ Chair) and at the end Rav Wilding (Master of Ceremonies).)