John Benjamin FGA - Friday 30th November This will be an insight into the fascinating world of jewellery valuer, Antiques Roadshow expert and appraiser, whose talks demonstrate his vast experience, contain a wealth of instructive and entertaining information and provide inspiration to all those who attend. John’s talk - Romancing the Stone will track the history of diamonds: mining, recovery, fashioning, design and jewellery as well as dealing with some of the most famous diamonds. V…

  During the week delegates have covered technical aspects of Gold Assaying by Fire Assay Method, precious metal analysis by XRF, testing of gold and other noble metals by touch acid techniques, Gold/Silver by scorification and finally, sampling and hallmarking On the final day of training Michael Allchin, Assay Master at The Birmingham Assay Office, presented the 3 trainees with certificates of attendance.

The Birmingham Assay Office was recently featured in the BBC 4programme ‘The Golden Age of Silver’ as part of the channel’s ‘Metalwork’s!’ series. Sally Hoban, Heritage& Training Officer was filmed explaining Hallmarking to TV historian Dan Cruickshank. You can watch the programme on YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJuIypxKVN8