International Convention Hallmarks
The Convention on the Control and Marking of Articles of Precious Metals (also known as "Precious Metals convention", “Hallmarking Convention” or “Vienna Convention”) is an international treaty between Contracting States, which aims at facilitating the cross-border trade of precious metal articles. The scope of the Convention is strictly limited to the control of the precious metal content – not to health, security or other aspects of precious metals articles.
At the moment the Convention is the only worldwide instrument, which harmonises the control and marking of precious metals, thus eliminating trade barriers in the cross-border trade of precious metals articles. It does not affect manufactures who do not wish the CCM but certainly favours those interested to export worldwide. As a matter of fact, the Convention's Common Control Mark is regarded in a naumber of third countries as a reliable quality mark and de facto recognised.
There are currently 19 Contracting States, which are Members of the Hallmarking Convention. For the complete list, see below:
Austria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerlnad, United Kingdom.
