Jewellery hallmarks are fascinating things. In fact, when you think about it, all icons, symbols and marks are a magical shortcut into another world of history, meaning and significance. Thousands of books have been devoted to the subject.

So it is with the hallmark on your JVD Claddagh ring, or in fact any decent piece of jewellery you own, whether it’s been fashioned by hand as a one off piece, or part of something mass produced. Hallmarks are the etched symbols in some discrete part of your jewellery to prove an item’s provenance.

In Ireland, as in many countries, all precious metals must undergo the processes of assaying and hallmarking. Irish hallmarks contain 3 elements. The first is the specific maker’s or sponsor’s mark, and more on this later. It’s typically 3 letters, so in the case of JVD Cladagh Rings, our maker’s mark is - you’ve guessed it - JVD.

The second element is the mark of the particular assay office, and to ‘assay’ something is to test and verify it for its ingredients and quality, as with the maker’s or sponsor’s mark, each office mark is different.

The third element denotes the type of precious metal and its purity or quality. With silver and platinum this is one symbol, showing the parts per thousand of the metai. With gold you get two symbols: one to denote the carat, and the other to denote the parts per thousand.

There are some variations on this, as you can see from the picture, but that’s the essence of your JVD Claddagh ring hallmark: its origin and its quality.

A further wrinkle on the hallmark is the difference between a maker’s mark and a sponsor’s mark. In essence, a maker’s mark is for the maker of the ring, like JVD. A sponsor’s mark means that you’re not necessarily the maker; you might have contracted this out to someone else to make the rings for you. Not so with JVD Claddagh rings.

When you look closely, you’ll also find an engraved bonus on your JVD Claddagh ring. That’s the unique identifying number, which marks the specific piece of JVD jewellery you own. These are not high volume identical pieces from some far off land. No, these are hand-made, to order, and each one is unique, like you.

You can shop the JVD Claddagh Rings range here.