Authentication & Expertise4 min read
Turn over almost any piece of Tiffany & Co. jewellery and you will find a short line of tiny letters and numbers. Those marks tell you what the piece is made from, who designed it and sometimes where it was made. Learning to read them is one of the first skills any collector picks up, and one of the most useful.
Why hallmarks matter
A hallmark is a small stamp or engraving that records information about a piece of jewellery. On a Tiffany piece, that usually means the maker’s name and the metal it is made from, and often more besides. For a buyer, these marks are a quick way to check that what you are looking at matches what you have been told.
They are not, however, proof on their own. Marks can be copied, and genuine pieces can wear so that marks become faint. We will come back to that, because it is the single most important thing to understand.
The Tiffany name
Most modern Tiffany jewellery carries the name of the house, usually written as Tiffany & Co. or abbreviated to T & Co. On necklaces and bracelets you will typically find it on a small tag near the clasp. On rings it sits inside the band, on bangles and cuffs on the inner surface, and on earrings on the post or the back.
On genuine pieces the lettering is clean and evenly spaced. Look closely at the ampersand and the full stop after “Co”; poorly made copies often get these small details wrong.
Metal and purity marks
The numbers you see are fineness marks. They tell you how much precious metal is in the alloy, in parts per thousand.
- 925 – sterling silver: 92.5% silver. You may also see it as AG925.
- 750 – 18ct gold: 75% gold. Sometimes written AU750.
- 950 – platinum, often shown as PT950.
Older pieces may be marked differently, for example with “Sterling” written out in full or with “18K” rather than 750. Some Tiffany pieces are made in RUBEDO, a rose-coloured alloy the house introduced in 2013. Because RUBEDO is not gold or silver, do not expect to see a 750 or 925 mark on it.
Designer signatures
Tiffany has worked with celebrated designers whose names appear on their pieces alongside the Tiffany mark. The ones you are most likely to meet are:
- Elsa Peretti – the designer behind the Open Heart, Bean and Bone Cuff. Her signature is usually stamped beside the Tiffany mark.
- Paloma Picasso – known for Graffiti, Loving Heart and Olive Leaf. Her signature tends to appear inside rings or on the back of charms, clasps and earrings.
- Jean Schlumberger – often marked “Schlumberger” or a studio variation.
Authenticators pay close attention to the style of these signatures. The proportions of the letters, the spacing and the way certain characters are formed are hard to copy convincingly, which makes them a helpful check when compared with known genuine examples.
Over-zealous polishing can soften or erase hallmarks over the years. If you are restoring a piece, ask for the marks to be protected. It is one of the first things our goldsmith considers through Chic Revive.
Country of origin and other marks
Many Tiffany pieces also show where they were made, such as “Italy”, “Mexico” or “USA”, depending on the collection and the period. You may also find a copyright symbol, a collection name or, on some pieces, a number. These marks vary between collections and over time, so it is the overall consistency of the marks that matters rather than any one detail.
UK hallmarks on Tiffany jewellery
If you are buying in Britain, you may notice additional marks. In the UK, precious metal items above certain weights must be independently hallmarked before they can be described as gold, silver or platinum. The exemption thresholds are 7.78 grams for silver, 1 gram for gold and 0.5 grams for platinum.
A full UK hallmark includes a sponsor’s mark, a fineness mark and the mark of the Assay Office that tested the piece, with a date letter as an optional extra. Marks from certain international convention countries are also legally recognised here. So a Tiffany piece sold in the UK may carry these marks as well as its own, which is normal and reassuring rather than suspicious.
Why a hallmark alone isn’t proof
This is the part that matters most. A correct-looking stamp tells you that the marks are consistent with a genuine piece. It does not prove that the piece is genuine. Counterfeiters copy marks, sometimes very convincingly, and genuine pieces can be worn, polished or repaired in ways that change how the marks look.
Authentication is never about one mark. It is about whether everything about a piece tells the same story.
That is why we always look at hallmarks alongside the weight, the construction, the clasp, the finish and the overall quality of the piece. If you would like to know what else to check, our guide on how to authenticate Tiffany & Co. jewellery walks through the details we look for. For the history behind the famous engraved tags, read the story of the Return to Tiffany heart tag.
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