How to Read a Silversmith Hallmark

A silversmith hallmark is a maker's mark: a stamp or engraving a silversmith puts on a piece to show whose work it is. A 2015 article by the Southwest jewelry dealer Turquoise Skies notes that “artists have used their initials, or even a single letter as their signature hallmark.”

Our own hallmark reference shows the same range. Of the 419 published entries as of 12 October 2026, 228 carry a transcribed mark text, and 136 of those are three letters or fewer, such as “RB” or “R.B.” Six entries record a symbol, such as a feather or a running horse.

No. Many stamps on Southwest silver are decoration, not a signature. The Heard Museum notes that Navajo smiths made stamps from iron tools such as nails and files, and that over time the stamps grew in size and complexity and “became the primary method of decorating silver.” A maker's mark is the stamp that identifies a person; the repeated stamped pattern around it does not.

A word or number such as STERLING, .925 or COIN is a quality mark: it describes the metal, not the maker (see the next section). A piece can carry a maker's mark, a quality mark, both, or neither.

They are claims about how much silver the metal contains. Under the Federal Trade Commission's Jewelry Guides (16 CFR § 23.5), calling an item “sterling”, “sterling silver” or “solid silver” is misleading unless it is at least 925/1,000ths pure silver. A “925” or “.925” stamp states that same fineness as a number: 925 parts per thousand.

The same rule says “coin” or “coin silver” requires at least 900/1,000ths pure silver. The Heard Museum records that silver was never mined by Native people of the Southwest: their first source was Spanish and Mexican coins, later American coins, and then one-ounce squares of silver from a California refinery.

“German silver” and “nickel silver” are not silver at all. The FTC's buying advice for American Indian arts and crafts says an item shouldn't be called silver unless it contains at least 90% silver, and that “German, or nickel silver doesn't qualify as silver.”

Because many early smiths did not stamp their work. Turquoise Skies' 2015 article states that “most early silversmiths did not place their stamp on their pieces”, and that for some marks that do exist, “information regarding which artist used the mark has been lost.”

So a missing hallmark is not, on its own, evidence about who made a piece or when. It means the answer has to come from somewhere else: the construction, the materials and, above all, written documentation from the seller. The FTC advises buyers to “get written proof of any claims the seller makes about the authenticity or origin of the item you're buying.”

No. A hallmark points to a probable maker; it does not settle the question by itself. Short marks are shared: in our reference, 15 mark texts are recorded, exactly as transcribed, for more than one entry as of 12 October 2026; “SC”, for example, is recorded for three different names. Turquoise Skies also notes that a trading-post or shop stamp “was not a guarantee of authenticity.”

What carries weight is the record that comes with a piece. The Indian Arts and Crafts Board advises buyers to get “a receipt that includes all the vital information about your purchase, including price, maker, and maker's Tribal affiliation,” and to request written verification from the dealer.

It prohibits marketing a product in a way that falsely suggests it was made by an Indian, an Indian tribe or a particular Indian artist. The statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1159, makes it unlawful “to offer or display for sale or sell any good … in a manner that falsely suggests it is Indian produced, an Indian product, or the product of a particular Indian or Indian tribe or Indian arts and crafts organization, resident within the United States.”

The law turns on who did the work. Under 25 CFR § 309.2 an Indian product is one made by an Indian, “the labor component of the product, however, must be entirely Indian”, and a product “in the style of” Indian work made by non-Indian labor is not an Indian product. The Indian Arts and Crafts Board defines an Indian as a member of a federally or officially State recognized tribe, or an individual certified as an Indian artisan by a tribe, and the FTC notes the rule covers art and craftwork made after 1935.

Penalties are serious. For a first violation involving goods offered at $1,000 or more, 18 U.S.C. § 1159 provides for a fine of up to $250,000, up to five years in prison, or both, for an individual, and a fine of up to $1,000,000 for a business; later violations carry up to 15 years for an individual and up to $5,000,000 for a business. The Act is administered by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, which takes complaints at 1-888-ART-FAKE.

Note what the Act's text addresses: how a piece is offered for sale and what that suggests about who made it. A stamp, present or missing, does not decide that question.

Write the mark down exactly as it appears, including periods, spaces and any symbol, then search our hallmark reference by those letters or by a name. Each entry gives the mark as transcribed, the nation as recorded and, for 297 of the 419 entries as of 12 October 2026, a photograph of the stamp to compare with yours.

You can also browse by the nation recorded for each entry. As of 12 October 2026 the reference records 342 entries for Navajo (Diné), 43 for Zuni, 16 for Hopi and 10 for Kewa (Santo Domingo); an entry with two nations counts under each. Entries labelled “Possible attribution” (42 of 419) are leads, not conclusions: the source describes the mark with hedged or unconfirmed language.

If you are not sure what the mark reads, the identify tool narrows the reference by what a mark shows: initials, a name, or a symbol such as a sun, a bear or a feather. A potter's mark is a signature written or incised on the piece rather than a stamp, so pottery signatures have their own section, grouped by the pueblo or nation recorded.

The reference is informational. We do not offer an authentication service for hallmarks or for pieces bought elsewhere.

Check a printed reference, then go back to the seller. One comprehensive printed reference is the book Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks; the Heard Museum Shop describes its fifth edition as covering hallmarks “used from the 1920s to present”, with “4,100+ entries & 6,100+ hallmark photos from 74 Federally recognized tribes.” For the history of the craft, John Adair's The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths (University of Oklahoma Press, 1944) is an early study based on fieldwork in 1938.

If no reference lists the mark, ask the seller for a written statement of the maker and the maker's tribal affiliation, as the Indian Arts and Crafts Board recommends. If you believe a piece was sold with a false claim that it is Indian-made, the Board takes complaints at 1-888-ART-FAKE.

If our reference is missing a mark you know, you can send it to us with a photograph; we review every submission before anything is added.