| |
GOLD AND SILVER WARES ACT 1854
|
| |
CAP. XCVI.
|
| |
An Act for allowing Gold Wares to be manufactured at a lower Standard than that now allowed by Law, and to amend the Law relating to the assaying of Gold and Silver Wares. [10th August 1854.]
|
| |
‘Whereas it is expedient that Gold of Standards inferior to those now allowed by Law should permitted to be used in Manufactures of Gold, and that Provision should be made for authorizing such lower Standards:’ Be it therefore enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, as follows:
|
|
|
Her Majesty may, by Order in Council, allow any Standard for Gold Wares not less than One Third Part in the whole.
|
I. It shall be lawful for Her Majesty, by any Order or Orders to be from Time to Time made by and with the Advice of Her Privy Council, to order that any Gold Vessel, Plate, or Manufacture of Gold may be wrought of any Standard not being less than One Third Part in the whole of Fine Gold, to be declared in any such Order, and also to approve thereby of the Instrument with which Gold Vessels, Plate, and Manufactures of Gold shall be marked or stamped, setting forth in Figures the actual Fineness thereof, according to the Standard so declared; and every such Gold Vessel, Plate, and Manufacture of Gold may be wrought accordingly; and it shall be lawful for Her Majesty, by and with the Advice aforesaid, to revoke or alter from Time to Time any such Order as aforesaid.
|
|
|
Gold and Silver Wares may be assayed at any lawful Assay Office wherever manufactured.
|
II. Workers or Dealers in Gold or Silver may register their Names, Marks, and Places of Abode at any Assay Office or Offices established by Law which they may select, and may thereupon have the Wares which are manufactured by them assayed and marked at such Office or Offices, without being liable to any Forfeiture or Penalty imposed by any Act now in force for not registering their Names, Marks, or Places of Abode, or for making, selling, or exporting such Wares without being marked at a particular Assay Office, and the Wares which shall be assayed as aforesaid may be sold or exposed by any Person without being liable to any Forfeiture or Penalty, notwithstanding any Provision to the contrary in any Act now in force.
|
|
|
Gold Wares unnecessarily marked not liable to Duty on Gold Plate.
|
III. If any of the Gold Wares which by any Statute now in force are not liable to be assayed and marked shall nevertheless be assayed and marked as of One of the Standards authorized by Law, such Wares shall not by reason thereof be chargeable with the Duty now levied upon Gold Plate.
|
|
|
Provisions of existing Acts to be applicable to the new Standard.
|
IV. Nothing in this Act contained shall be deemed or taken to repeal the Statutes now in force relating to Standards of Gold Wares, or to the Marks for denoting the same, or any of such Statutes, but the same, and all the Provisions, Prohibitions, Penalties, and Forfeitures enacted thereby respectively, shall continue to be in as full Force and Effect as if this Act had not passed, and shall be construed with and as forming Part of this Act, save only that in the Interpretation thereof all Standards authorized by Her Majesty in pursuance of this Act shall be deemed and taken to be lawful Standards; and all Gold Vessels, Plate, and Manufactures wrought in conformity with this Act shall be deemed and taken to be lawfully wrought within the Meaning of the said Statutes; and all Gold Vessels, Plate, and Manufactures duly assayed and marked in conformity with this Act, and being of the Standard duly authorized in pursuance of the same, shall be deemed and taken to be lawfully assayed and marked within the Meaning of the same Statutes respectively.
|
|
|
Penalty for marking Gold Ware of a lower Standard with the Mark appropriated to a higher Standard.
|
V. If any Assayer or other Officer or Person employed by any Company or Corporation authorized to assay and mark Gold Vessels, Plate, or Manufactures of Gold, shall mark or permit or suffer to be marked any Gold Vessel, Plate, or Manufacture of Gold of a lower Standard, with any Die or other Instrument used by any such Company or Corporation for marking Gold Vessels, Plate, or Manufactures of Gold of a higher Standard, every such Company or Corporation to which such Assayer or Officer shall belong or by which such Person shall be employed, shall for every such Offence forfeit and pay to Her Majesty the Sum of Twenty Pounds, which may be sued for and recovered in such and the like Manner as Penalties recoverable under any Act in force relating to Stamp Duties are to be sued for and recovered by Law; and every such Assayer or other Officer or Person employed as aforesaid, upon Complaint or Information made thereof by any Officer of Stamp Duties to any Justice of the Peace having Jurisdiction where any such Offence shall be committed, upon the Oath of One or more credible Person or Persons (which Oath such Justice is hereby empowered and required to administer), and upon being convicted of such Offence by or before such Justice, shall be by him forthwith dismissed and discharged from his said Office and Employment of or in the Company or Corporation to or in which he shall have so belonged or been so employed as aforesaid, and shall be incapable for ever afterwards of holding any Office or Employment in or under the same or any other such Company or Corporation; and every Gold Vessel, Plate, and Manufacture of Gold of a lower Standard, so marked as last aforesaid, shall and may be lawfully seized by any such Company or Corporation other than the Company or Corporation to which the offending Officer or Person belongs, or by whom he is employed, and shall be dealt with in like Manner as is provided with respect to Wares seized by virtue of the Provisions of the Act of the Seventh and Eighth Years of the Reign of Her present Majesty, Chapter Twenty-two.
|
