Questionhi. i received a necklace as a gift and its gold. on the clasp is engraved. 417 and on the opposite side it says ALI. what do these things mean.. and if i wanted to find out who made the necklace how could i do that?
AnswerDear Monique,
Thank you for this question. I can tell you about the 417 but not about the maker's mark, ALI. There are several jewelery makers in India with that a part of their name but who is to know which might use ALI as a stamp. Then again, the name could easily be part of a company name or initials from the USA or most anywhere in the world making jewelry which is exported. There are honestly greatly fewer manufacturers of chains and similar items in countries like the USA than in years past with most of this work being outsourced or imported from foreign manufacturers in India, Thailand, Turkey and certainly China. Italy still supplies nice chains as expected.
You will have a difficult time finding the owner of the mark, even more so if the chain is imported as most are. To search jewelry manufacturers hallmarks on the net and see what you find is one method, even if somewhat unproductive. Libraries will have books of trademarks. A library search is likely to be frustrating but possibly more productive than the Internet. A research librarian will point you in the right direction.
Now for the meaning of 417: The chain is 10kt gold, assuming the chain is the same metal as the clasp and that is generally the case. Makers stamp the claps or a tag on the chain since directly stamping a chain is not workable. How do I know it is 10kt? Nowadays, many makers have adopted more universal methods of stamping the quality of metal on jewelry. The means of doing this is numbers representing the amount of precious metal in the metal overall. For instance, sterling silver is 92.5% (the same as 0.925)pure silver mixed with other metals(generally copper) to make the metal tough enough for jewelry and silverware. The word sterling itself is a legal definition of a silver recipe which is 0.925 pure silver, hence the mark 925 on sterling jewelry. With gold, figure it this way, using 24kt as pure gold. With pure gold being 24kt, something made of gold which is marked 417 is simply 0.417 X 24kt = 10.00kt.
Do it backwards and divide to change karat to the numerical mark, such as 18k/24kt = 0.750. The numerical mark for 18k is 750. 14kt is 583 when figured with math but most 14kt jewelry is actually a touch higher than 14kt and is marked 585. (The Europeans started the slightly higher karat for 14kt.)
Ok, it could be easily understood or is confusing. If confusing, just take it from me that 417 meaans the same as 10kt.
Monique, I hope this helps. Use a follow-up to get back with me if you need to.
God Bless and Peace. Thomas.
