Hi,

I was wondering if anyone knew what the Turkish jewellery hallmark 565 was? Is it silver or 14kt?? Have tried google but cant find the answer!

ekd. x

I'm not really sure but this might help you work it out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millesimal_fineness

If it is marked 585 rather than 565 then apparently that is equivalent to 14 carat gold

There is a proportional unit used to describe the proportions of different metals used to make an alloy.
The Turkish word for this scale is "milyem". Milyem is used both in chemistry and by jewellers. Accordingly 999 is the highest level of purity. To my knowledge, milyem is more common for relatively less valuable metals such as silver and copper. The formula used to calculate purity is as follows:

purity = metal1 / metal1 + metal2

In other words a 525 milyem means 0.9041 grams of cheap metal was added for each gram of silver used to make the alloy.

For gold and platinum turkish/international unit karat/carat is used.

One old standard still used today is ayar which. 24 ayar denotes highest purity. I guess all the other details are exactly the same as the international standards. For silver there is another old standard where the highest purity is denoted as 12 ayar.

well see i have ring from turkey with "turuç565" (it actually might be 585 but i cant remember and its in the shop at the moment, dont ask!) stamped on the inside. Its a silver colour and i assumed it was silver but the lady in the shop told me that in england that particular hallmark meant it would be white gold not silver (must've been 585 then) but was unsure what this particular hallmark meant considering the ring is from turkey. i was hoping someone could shed some light on it for me. are hall marks in turkey different from hallmarks in england??

from what i know...white gold and yellow gold are normally measured in karats (carats) and will have this stamped on the inside of the jewellery.

for example, 24 carat, 22 carat, 18 carat, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carat_%28purity%29

sometimes the purity of gold is measured in millesimal fineness (as mentioned in a few posts above) and this will be stamped instead.

some countries have restrictions on what level of carats they can sell:
http://www.gold.org/jewellery/technology/caratage/index.html

white gold is a mixture of gold and a white metal, such as nickel or palladium. the highest white gold quality you can get is usually 21 carat. white gold jewellery will usually be plated with rhodium to give it a better shine, over the years this rhodium will wear away and the jewellery will need to get re-plated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_gold
http://www.gold.org/jewellery/technology/colours/white.html

if the piece of jewellery is indeed sterling silver, the millesimal fineness for this should be 925, and will be stamped on the jewellery, this should be worldwide.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_silver

so with turuç585 stamped inside it shall we go with 14kt white gold then instead of silver?

as far as i know any sterling silver jewellery should have 925 stamped on it.

so yes, it doesn't appear that it is sterling silver.

but i don't know what turuç means...

ok thanks.

the lady wasnt sure if the turkish hallmark system was the same as the english one but it must be the same internationally with the numbers i.e. 585, 925. just the actual hallmark stamps that differ, if you know what i mean.

what a nice surprise eh!!