UniArt First Law Silver Warranty
All UniArt (UA) products described as first law silver, sterling silver, or 925 silver are made of at least 925 thousandths silver and bear the official hallmark stamps.
Official Hallmark Stamps:
According to current legislation in Spain, objects made of silver must undergo a rigorous inspection by an official precious metal analysis and hallmarking laboratory or one authorized by the public administration before being marketed.
The laboratory will determine the purity of the metal and mark the piece with its official guarantee mark, which includes the purity in numbers followed by the laboratory's initials. Additionally, the piece must also bear the origin mark, which is an official mark identifying the Spanish manufacturer or the importer in case of products made in other countries.
These two marks are known as hallmark stamps.
The guarantee mark for first law silver, as stipulated in current Spanish legislation, is a rectangle containing the number 925 followed by the initials of the official or authorized laboratory according to the autonomous community (letter and number).
The origin mark is a corporate mark related to the manufacturer or importer and has an official character as it is recognized by the competent authorities.
UniArt (UA) Origin Mark:
Examples of guarantee marks:
It is advisable to use a magnifying glass to better identify the marks.
In case, for technical reasons or size, it is not possible to properly mark the piece, the laboratory will provide a tag with the respective marks, which must always accompany the piece, guaranteeing its purity grade.
Guarantee tags can vary in format, content, and material according to the legislation of the autonomous community that regulates them, but all contain the official hallmark stamps.
The M1 laboratory (Madrid) provides tags made by the Casa de la Moneda y Timbre with the lot number of the piece.
The CL1 laboratory (Castilla and León) provides paper tags with a unique alphanumeric serial reference for each piece.
The A1 laboratory (Andalucía) provides brass tags in the form of a rosette or padlock with the hallmark stamps.
The A2 laboratory (Andalucía) provides tags made by the Casa de la Moneda y Timbre with the lot number of the piece.
Hallmarked pieces according to the legislation have a lifetime guarantee of the silver purity, with the laboratory and the manufacturer or importer being responsible for the truthfulness of the guarantee and the metal's purity.
First Law Silver or 925 Silver.
Since pure silver is a very soft metal, it is necessary to mix it with another metal to work with it, thus creating an alloy.
The alloys recognized by Spanish legislation as sterling silver are:
In Spain, the legislation recognizes first law silver alloys as those containing 92.5% silver and 7.5% another metal, generally copper.
Second law silver is an alloy that contains less silver, only 80% silver.
To define the purity of silver, these percentages are expressed in thousandths, 925 for first law silver, and 800 for second law silver.
If, when analyzed by the laboratory, the object does not reach the necessary purity to be considered as sterling silver, it cannot be marketed and the laboratory will not mark it.
Therefore, to be considered first law silver, an object must be made of an alloy containing at least 925 thousandths of silver, that is, at least 925 parts of silver and a maximum of 75 parts of another metal.
Other Marks that Pieces May Contain:
The only marks that guarantee the purity and quality of silver pieces are those mentioned above. This does not prevent pieces from bearing other marks considered promotional but without official value.
It should be noted that counterfeiting official marks is considered a very serious offense.