www.925-1000.com

Having seen so many faked hallmarks I wondered who made tools with fake hallmarks.
Classical engraving in steel is very skilled and expensive process limited to very few masters who work with hunting rifle factories and steel engraved weapons are extremely expensive. A square inch of hand engraving costs about Euro 1000. The photos depict a hallmarking tool for 0.900 silver, borrowed from a jeweler (it is curved for easier strike of rings). The tip with 900 is barely visible to naked eye. He has paid DM 1000 for it at the time, and there was only one engraver who could do it.
Unfortunately, I was not aware of laser engraving: ``The best traditional engraving materials started out to be the worst laser-engravable materials. This problem has now been solved using lasers at shorter wavelengths. ``
It means that laser technology can make any possible steel hallmarking tool. On the other hand, if it is so advanced and precise, why do they make mistakes and poor quality of hallmarks and cannot even make proper ``84`` hallmark and let alone St George for Moscow ? I have never seen such a tool so far.
Besides, there is another issue: what happened to the original hallmarking tools? Both Serbia and The Kingdom of Yugoslavia had very elaborate and nice hallmarks, as seen in Tardy`s. A relative of mine worked in the Assay Office as a night guard but was familiar with their inventory. Do you think that any of those genuine hallmarking tools were still there? Of course not! They simply vanished into thin air. What about Russian Imperial hallmarking tools? I doubt that they remained in scattered Assayer’s offices during WW I and the revolution. What about town hallmarking tools when the system changed in 1899? I doubt they were officially destroyed. If not, where are they now? The same question can be asked for Germany when ``crescent and crown`` was introduced. Excuse me if you find this ``off topic`` but I have a reliable witness that all hallmarking tools from our Assay Office ARE NOT THERE ANY MORE. If they are still used by fakers, the only thing we can rely on is the quality of silver or ``how it’s made``.
Ivan

Hi Argentum49 -

First: where are all the hallmarking tools? As example Russia: in normal times the old tools were destoyed because they were worthless. Nobody thought of fakes at that time. After the Revolution and WWI there was the biggest chaos you could immagine - people were not interested in assay tools - they were only interested in bread - and that for the next 20 years! Than WWII started - again only one thought: bread. After WWII, rebuilding, mismanagement, chaos etc. again. What could you do with some useless tools? They simply fanished, were destroyed, thrown away, melted etc. Absolute no interest. The same in Germany West with relics from Third Reich - all vanished - no interest what so ever. Germany East - realy no interest for stamps, tools or insignia - trash bin! They all had different interests - to live. Who can eat punches?

Second: Faking. If you observed the techniques from the beginning you can say they are getting better and better. That is normal - as more as your clients know - the more you must invest. But making authentic punches is dangerous, expensive and you can not use them very often without notice from the market. Cheating means: biggest profit with less investment. They produce fakes - not counterfeits!! If you get a real 14 K goldbox with real diamonds and rubies for that money - where is the problem, exept it is no original - you got what you payed. A nearly honest deal :-)

The only medicine against this is knowledge - as everywhere in life! Be smart and do not buy every sh...start using you brain!

Regards
Postnikov

Hello Ivan,

You ask why, if laser technology is so good, some faked marks are so poor. I think cost may be a big issue. I recently had a tour of the London Assay Office who have invested in a laser cutting machine for making punches. If I remember correctly, the sum they mentioned was £500,000 for the machine. For most fakers, if not all, this is simply too big an outlay to make any profit.
Perhaps, in the future, this technology will become cheaper.

Miles