I bought several tiffany necklaces in the USA which don’t have UK hallmarks. How do i go about selling them in the UK? Do i need to get uk hallmarks on it? How do i do this? Am i allowed to send the necklaces to a assay office? I dont understand the sponsor mark. Would the sponsor mark be tiffany?
Thanks for your help
There is always the option of getting them assayed by one of the assay offices. If so, unless you registered a sponsor’s mark yourself, they would be marked with the assay office’s own mark as sponsor; e.g. LAO, BAO, etc. However, if these are purely personal sales without commercial intent, then I suggest that you just advertise them as Tiffany necklaces - the name should be enough to reassure any potential purchasers. If you need any reassurance just take a look on Ebay at the number of Tiffany pieces being sold from within the UK. I have just had a look and within the Silver category there are 193 sales with “Tiffany” in the title!
Phil
Thanks for your reply. I have bought them to resell, so i guess the only option is go get the assay hallmark on them correct?
Or can i list them as tiffany but i cant mention silver anywhere on the listing? This will potentially put buyers off as they will think its not real silver
Theoretically nothing can be described as silver unless marked with a legally recognised mark or below the minimum weight, but as you will see from online auctions loads of stuff goes under the radar. Presumably they are marked as sterling so just describe what you see. If you are selling on Ebay then list them in the Silver section. Should be OK as long as you are not selling hundreds of them commercially. For your own satisfaction it might be worth contacting one of the assay offices to see what they say. BAO contact details here.
I did contact two offices and got no responses at all
So in summary im ok to sell as silver if below 7.78gr, anything above and without the uk assay hallmark i cant sell at all i guess 
…i know most people sell as silver anyways but i dont want to go against the law
This law is very confusing
You are at liberty to sell silver without limitation; what you can’t (theoretically) do is call it silver. Put it on Ebay (or wherever) in the “Silver” section and illustrate with good quality pictures.
Hello, I honestly think that you marking Tiffany items would take away a lot of the value of the piece by misrepresenting the item. There are some items of theirs that don’t have a 925 or sterling marking from what I’ve read, but they are quite old. Do you have a photo of your Tiffany marking items?
How is tiffany allowed to sell them in the uk without an assay office hallmark?
It’s sterling silver, have the hallmark 925. I don’t know the law in UK, but I believe you can sell with no problems, it’s an imported item.
An item doesn’t have to have a UK assay office hallmark to be sold in UK, however a Tiffany item would have some sort of silver ID e.g. ‘sterling’ or ‘925’ plus the Tiffany brand mark, although the latter is easily forged and, in the case of Tiffany, is frequently done. Ditto ‘Tiffany’ wrapping materials.
