The letters SVG inside a gold piece of jewellery are a name stamp, not an indication of the gold's quality. Such a stamp tells you who made the piece or who is responsible for it, but it often appears alongside a completely different stamp that shows the fineness. So when you want to know how much gold is in a piece of jewellery, you need to look for the right mark. This article explains what the letter stamp SVG covers, how it differs from the karat stamp, and how to read whether a piece of jewellery is genuine gold.

SVG is a manufacturer's or responsibility stamp

SVG is a name stamp that identifies the company or goldsmith who made the piece or is responsible for it. In the jewellery world, this kind of lettering is called a maker's mark or a responsibility stamp, and it typically consists of two to four letters that are the initials of the manufacturer, importer or retailer. The letters SVG point to a particular producer and therefore say nothing about how many karats the gold has.

A name stamp is used, among other things, if a buyer later wants to find out where the jewellery comes from. In other words, it is a kind of signature. Two pieces of jewellery with the same karat can easily have different letter stamps, because they were made by different companies. SVG therefore helps trace the origin, but not assess the material.

The difference between a name stamp and a karat stamp

Where the name stamp tells you about the sender, the karat stamp tells you about the content of pure gold. A piece of jewellery often has both stamped side by side, and it is important not to confuse them. Letters like SVG are the name, while numbers like 585 or 750 are the fineness.

The fineness indicates how large a part of the jewellery is pure gold, measured in thousandths. The number 585 corresponds to 14 karat gold, because 585 out of 1000 parts are pure gold. The number 750 corresponds to 18 karat gold. Pure gold is too soft for everyday use, so it is mixed with other metals, and it is precisely this mixture that the karat stamp describes. At Longvé, 14K gold and 14K white gold are the primary metals, and those pieces therefore carry a karat stamp at that end of the scale. If you want to go in depth with what 14 karat gold means, there is a separate article dedicated to exactly that.

What do letters in gold mean?

Letters in a piece of gold jewellery cover several different kinds of marks, which is why they can seem confusing. In addition to manufacturer's and responsibility stamps, there are also letters that form part of the fineness indication itself or refer to the colour of the gold.

• Manufacturer's or responsibility stamp. Two to four letters like SVG that show who is behind the piece.
• The colour of the gold. A letter like W can stand for white gold.
• Material abbreviations. The letters can be an abbreviation that, together with a number, describes the material.

Because the same letters can be used by several producers, you can rarely look up a name stamp unambiguously without a list of registered marks. The crucial thing in everyday life is therefore to tell the difference between the letters that name the piece and the numbers that tell you about the quality of the gold.

How to see how many karats the gold is

The gold's karat is read from the number on the piece, not from the letters. The common fineness stamps recur on most pieces of jewellery, and each number corresponds to a particular number of karats.

If you find one of these numbers, you know the gold's fineness right away. The higher the number, the more pure gold. A piece stamped 585 is thus 14 karat, while 750 is 18 karat. If you want to know more about the difference between 14 and 18 karat gold, a separate article covers exactly that question. If the stamp is missing entirely, it may be because it has worn away, or because the piece was never stamped.

How can you tell if it is genuine gold?

The stamp is the first place you look, but it is not in itself conclusive proof. A genuine piece of gold jewellery normally bears both a fineness stamp and often a name stamp, and the two marks are typically placed close together on a discreet surface, for example inside a ring or on the clasp of a chain. If you find only letters like SVG and no number, the jewellery still says nothing about how much gold it contains.

Genuine gold also has some physical traits you can check. Gold does not tarnish and does not darken over time the way base metals do, and it feels heavy in relation to its size. If you are in doubt, a goldsmith can test the fineness with an acid test or an electronic meter that reveals the actual gold content. A more detailed review of the methods can be found in the article on how you can tell if it is genuine gold.

Why is gold stamped at all?

Stamping exists because gold is a valuable material where the buyer cannot see with the naked eye how much pure gold is in the piece. The name stamp links the piece to a particular maker, and the fineness stamp documents the quality. Together, the two marks make it possible to know what you are dealing with without having to cut into the material.

For anyone who wants to understand what the individual numbers and letters cover, there are several related questions to dive into. The meaning of stamps in jewellery is covered all in one place, and there is also an explanation of what the number in jewellery means. If you want to know which karats of gold exist, you can get the full overview there.