In the best scenario, the hallmark, responsibility, fineness, date and locality marks can be found by inspecting the product. All of these marks should be examined together in order to be fully confident of their interpretation. Sometimes, the marks may be worn out, badly stamped or upside-down.

Search criterion can be the responsibility or locality mark. If you cannot find the name of the responsibility mark holder, you should double-check all the responsibility marks for the specific locality. The reason for this is that there are still some unknown responsibility marks.

If the responsibility mark is a 'symbol' or 'signature', check the number or letter of your mark in 'Symbol Marks' or 'Signature Marks' pages. You can find them linked on this page and in the menu.

Old marks can often look similar, for example, I and J, C and G; you should consider this when searching.

You should also only search for letters - not dots, spaces or punctuation marks. For example, A:PIHRA is recorded in the form of APIHRA, C: G: N in the form of CGN and C.F. ELG in the form of CFELG. So, for all marks the letters are written together without punctuation and spaces. Only the characters / & and - are still relevant. For example, RSO/y, K&K, or KK-KK.