Gold and Silver Stamps Explained: What 14K, 585, 925 and GF Really Mean

A 14K gold ring is about 42% something other than gold. It says so right on the inside of the band, in a stamp about the size of a sesame seed, and almost nobody reads it.

Gold and silver stamps tell you how much of the piece is precious metal. Gold is marked in karats out of 24 (10K, 14K, 18K) or in parts per thousand (417, 585, 750); silver in parts per thousand, with 925 meaning sterling. Letters such as GF, GP, HGE, RGP and EPNS mean the piece is plated or filled, not solid. What the stamp is worth depends on who put it there, and in most countries, including the US, that is the maker, not an inspector.

Think of it as the label on a can. It lists the ingredients, the law says what the words are allowed to mean, and in some countries an inspector checks the can before it reaches the shelf. In others the label is the company’s word, plus its name and address so you know whom to call.

Gold karat chart: what 10K, 14K, 18K and 24K mean

A karat is one part in 24. So 24K is pure gold and 14K is 14 parts gold out of 24, with the other 10 parts copper, silver, zinc or nickel, which make it harder and change the color. The European-style number says the same thing in thousandths, which is easier to do arithmetic with.

14 ÷ 24 is 0.5833, so a 14K piece is 58.3% gold. The 585 stamp sits a hair above that, which means a piece stamped 585 is never under 14K. UK jewelers write “ct” (carat) where Americans write “K”; the numbers mean the same thing.

The higher the karat, the more yellow and the softer. That is why 24K is for bars and coins that sit in a drawer and 14K is for wedding rings that get banged against car doors for fifty years. It is also why “which is better, 14K or 18K?” has no answer. 18K holds more gold; 14K takes more abuse.

What does 925 mean on silver?

It means 925 parts in 1,000 are silver: sterling. The rest is usually copper, added because pure silver is too soft to make a fork that survives a steak. The other silver stamps work the same way.

In the US, the Federal Trade Commission’s Jewelry Guides set what the words may mean. “Sterling” needs at least 925 parts silver and “coin silver” at least 900. The bare word “silver” is misleading unless a fineness number comes right before it, like “800 silver.”

The trap is nickel silver, also sold as German silver or alpaca. It is copper, nickel and zinc, and it contains no silver whatsoever. EPNS stands for electroplated nickel silver, which is nickel silver with a thin silver coat. Buying “nickel silver” for the silver is like buying “crab-flavored sticks” for the crab.

Stamps that mean it isn’t solid gold

These marks say the gold is a layer, and the law sets how thick the layer has to be. Under the FTC’s Jewelry Guides (16 CFR 23.3 and 23.4), the layer must be at least 10K gold in every case:

• GF, gold filled: a gold sheet bonded to a base metal by heat and pressure, at least 1/20 of the piece’s total metal weight. Usually stamped with the fraction and the karat, as in “1/20 12K GF.”
• RGP, rolled gold plate, or gold overlay: the same method with a thinner layer, at least 1/40 of the weight.
• GEP or GE, gold electroplate: gold put on electrically, at least 0.175 microns thick, hundreds of times thinner than a human hair.
• HGE, heavy gold electroplate: at least 2.5 microns. Heavy, in the way a heavy coat of paint is heavy.
• GP, gold plated: a gold surface of no guaranteed thickness. Plan on it wearing through.
• Vermeil: sterling silver plated with at least 10K gold, 2.5 microns thick. The gold is a coat, but the silver underneath is real.

Gold filled is the only one with gold you could ever weigh. A “1/20 12K GF” bracelet is 1/20 of its weight in 12K gold, and 12K is half gold, so 2.5% of the bracelet is pure gold. A 20-gram bracelet holds about half a gram. It is real gold, in the same sense that a fruit snack is real fruit.

Who checks the stamp? It depends where you live

In the US, nobody checks before it is sold. There is no government assay office for jewelry. The stamp is the maker’s claim, and the National Gold and Silver Stamping Act puts two conditions on it. Anyone who stamps a quality mark must also put on a trademark registered (or applied for) in the US, or their name, so the claim has an owner (15 USC 297, since the early 1960s). And the metal may fall short of its stamp by at most three parts per thousand, or seven when the test includes solder (15 USC 295).

That tolerance used to be looser. Until October 1, 1981, the law allowed gold to fall half a karat short of its stamp, so a ring made in 1975 and stamped 14K could legally be 13.5K. If an old piece tests a little under its stamp, that may be why, and it was legal at the time.

Canada works much the same way. Under the Precious Metals Marking Act and its regulations, a quality mark must come with a registered trademark, the lowest gold that can be marked is 9 karat, and silver must be at least 925 to carry a silver quality mark.

The UK is the opposite. Gold and palladium over 1 gram, silver over 7.78 grams and platinum over 0.5 grams can’t be sold as precious metal unless one of four independent assay offices has tested and hallmarked it. That is the can inspected at the factory gate, not the label taking the company’s word for it.

How to read a British hallmark

A full UK hallmark is a row of tiny punches. Three are compulsory:

1. The sponsor’s mark: the initials of the maker or importer who sent the piece in, at least two letters, inside a shield.
2. The fineness mark: the parts-per-thousand number, such as 375, 750 or 925.
3. The assay office mark: where it was tested. A leopard’s head for London, an anchor for Birmingham, a Yorkshire rose for Sheffield and a castle for Edinburgh.

Two more are optional. A traditional fineness symbol: a crown for gold, a lion for sterling, Britannia for Britannia silver, an orb for platinum. And a date letter, which changes every January 1 and lets you date a piece to the year it was marked; it has been optional since the 1999 changes, but many makers still use it.

The system is old. A statute of Edward I in 1300 required silver to be tested and marked with a leopard’s head, and the work was done at the Goldsmiths’ Hall in London, which is where the word “hallmark” comes from. The leopard has been checking spoons for more than 700 years.

Other countries’ marks you may meet. A Convention mark (the Common Control Mark, a balance scale with the fineness inside) is accepted across the member countries of the Hallmarking Convention. Switzerland stamps precious-metal watch cases with a Saint Bernard’s head. Italian pieces often carry a star, a number and a two-letter province code, such as AR for Arezzo or VI for Vicenza: that is the maker’s registration, next to a fineness number like 750.

Can a stamp be faked?

Easily, and far more easily outside the UK. A stamping punch that says 14K costs a counterfeiter about as much as one that says 10K, and nothing about it is checked until someone tests the metal. A missing stamp proves nothing either: resized rings, repaired clasps and old handmade pieces often lost theirs or never had one.

So read the stamp first and believe it second. The guide to telling if gold is real and the guide to telling if silver is real cover the home tests that check what the stamp says: where the color wears through, the magnet, and the water test for density.

What is a stamped piece worth?

The stamp gives you the arithmetic. The metal inside is the weight times the fineness: a 10-gram chain stamped 585 holds 5.85 grams of pure gold, and a 50-gram sterling bowl holds 46.25 grams of silver. Multiply by the spot price per gram and you have the melt value, which is the most a buyer pays for scrap, not what they usually pay.

The scrap gold calculator does it item by item, at today’s price, for every stamp in this guide, including gold filled and plated (which it counts as zero, because no buyer pays for a 0.175-micron coat). Jewelry with a maker’s name, stones or real craftsmanship can be worth more as jewelry than as metal, so check that before anything goes in a melting pot.

Why the stamp matters at all

Because precious metal is the one thing in your jewelry box you can’t judge by looking at it. 10K and 18K can be the same color. Sterling and silver plate shine the same on day one. The stamp is the ingredient list, and like any ingredient list it is most useful to the person who reads it and then checks.

The 14K ring is still 42% something else. At least now you know which number told you.

Sources

• Gold filled (1/20), rolled gold plate and gold overlay (1/40), gold electroplate (0.175 microns), heavy gold electroplate (2.5 microns), the 10K minimum for each layer, and the tolerances: FTC Jewelry Guides, 16 CFR 23.3; vermeil: 16 CFR 23.4; sterling (925), coin silver (900) and the word “silver”: 16 CFR 23.5.
• The trademark required beside a US quality mark: 15 USC 297. The tolerance of three (seven with solder) parts per thousand, and the half-karat tolerance it replaced (Pub. L. 94-450, enacted October 1, 1976, effective five years later): 15 USC 295.
• Canada (9 karat minimum for gold, 925 for silver, trademark applied with the quality mark): Precious Metals Marking Regulations.
• UK hallmarks, the compulsory and optional marks, and the Convention finenesses: The Assay Office, London; the four town marks, the traditional symbols and the weight thresholds: The Royal Mint; the 1300 statute, Goldsmiths’ Hall, the 1999 changes and the Swiss mark: Wikipedia, Hallmark.
• Nickel silver (no silver; usually 60% copper, 20% nickel, 20% zinc) and EPNS: Wikipedia, Nickel silver.
• Italian maker’s marks (star, number and province letters): Italian silversmiths directory.

Calculated here: 14 ÷ 24 = 58.3%; a 1/20 12K gold-filled piece is 2.5% pure gold (0.5 g in 20 g); 5.85 g of gold in a 10 g 585 chain; 46.25 g of silver in a 50 g sterling bowl; a 14K ring is about 42% other metals.

Questions people actually ask

What does 585 mean on gold?

It means 585 parts in 1,000 are gold, which is 14 karat. 14 divided by 24 is 58.3%, and the 585 stamp sits just above that, so a piece stamped 585 is never under 14K. It is the European way of writing 14K.

What does 925 mean on jewelry?

It means the piece is 92.5% silver, which is sterling silver. The rest is usually copper, added for hardness. In the US, the FTC's Jewelry Guides allow the words sterling or sterling silver only on silver that is at least 925 parts per thousand.

What does 750 mean on gold?

It means 750 parts in 1,000 are gold: 18 karat, or 75% gold. You see it on fine jewelry and watch cases, often next to the maker's mark and, on Italian pieces, a star with a number and a province code.

Is 10K gold real gold?

Yes. 10K is 41.7% gold, stamped 10K or 417, and it is the most common low grade sold as solid gold in the US. The UK and Canada also allow 9 karat (375). It is harder and paler than 14K or 18K and worth less per gram, in proportion to the gold it holds.

What does GF mean on gold jewelry?

Gold filled: a layer of gold alloy of at least 10K bonded to a base metal, making up at least 1/20 of the piece's metal weight under the FTC's Jewelry Guides. A piece stamped 1/20 12K GF is about 2.5% pure gold.

What does HGE mean on jewelry?

Heavy gold electroplate: an electroplated layer of at least 10K gold, at least 2.5 microns thick. GE or GEP, plain gold electroplate, needs only 0.175 microns. Either way, the piece is plated, not solid gold, and scrap buyers pay little or nothing for the gold.

What is the difference between 14K and 18K gold?

18K is 75% gold and 14K is 58.3%. 18K is more yellow, softer and worth more per gram; 14K is harder and holds up better to daily wear. Which is better depends on whether you value gold content or durability.

Is vermeil real gold?

It has real gold on the surface. Under the FTC's Jewelry Guides, vermeil is sterling silver plated with at least 10K gold, at least 2.5 microns thick. The gold is a coat, but the sterling silver underneath is solid and has melt value.

What does EPNS mean on silver?

Electroplated nickel silver. Nickel silver, also called German silver, is copper, nickel and zinc and contains no silver; EPNS is that alloy with a thin silver plating. It has almost no silver value.

Does a stamp guarantee gold or silver is real?

Not in the US or Canada, where the stamp is the maker's claim and no one checks it before sale, though the law requires a registered trademark beside it. A UK hallmark is applied by an independent assay office after testing. Anywhere, a stamp can be faked, so confirm it with a test.