5 tips for recognising fake Pandora jewellery
Pandora is a jewellery brand known for its collections of interchangeable charms, allowing you to personalise your jewellery to your image. Elegant and modern, the brand's jewellery is also attractive for its high quality. The jewellery is hand-finished and made from authentic materials, mainly solid sterling silver and 14 or 18 carat gold with precious stones, gems, cultured pearls and glass. Unfortunately, the growing popularity of Pandora has led to the appearance of a growing number of fake bracelets, and they are becoming increasingly clever. However, there are ways to avoid buying a fake Pandora piece. That's why, in this article, we're sharing our tips and tricks for spotting fake Pandora jewellery.
1. The master stamp
To help you identify a genuine piece, Pandora jewellery items bear the distinctive mark of the father of the brand's founder. Authentic Pandora items are stamped with "ALE", which stands for "Algot Enevoldsen", the father of Pandora founder Per Enevoldsen. All Pandora charms and accessories will have this ALE hallmark engraved on the piece, usually close to where the sterling silver or gold mark is. If the piece does not bear this mark, it is certainly not a genuine Pandora piece.
Note: some of the smaller parts may not have this mark, but you'll find that most of them do!
An example of a Pandora jewel bearing the ALE master hallmark.
2. Metal purity
It is also essential that you check your coin for the quality mark. This mark indicates the purity of the metal and guarantees that it is genuine. These two numbers, 925 for sterling silver and 585 for 14-carat gold, are an international standard and compulsory markings for jewellery made from these two materials. Although it sounds nice to have something made of pure silver or gold, these precious metals are actually very soft and benefit greatly from mixing other metals to form an alloy.
Silver jewellery
All sterling silver jewellery is stamped with a capital "S" for silver, followed by the 925 purity mark. This means that sterling silver must contain at least 92.5% silver and will appear as S925. Hence the 925 marking seen on all Pandora sterling silver pieces.
In addition to the 925 mark on Pandora silver jewellery, as of June 2011, Pandora has added an "S" in addition to 925, a change in the international standard for identifying silver jewellery. So don't worry if some of the older charms don't have an "S" and only the traditional 925.
Gold jewellery
The same applies to 14-carat gold, which must contain at least 58.5% gold. Pandora gold coins are engraved with the number 585, again usually close to where the ALE marking is placed. Gold jewellery is stamped with a capital "G" followed by either a purity mark of 585 (G585, 58.5% pure gold - 14 carats) or 750 (G750, 75% pure gold - 18 carats).
Two-tone jewellery
As for bicolour charms and jewellery, Pandora only stamps them with the S925 or 925 mark, as all bicolour charms are still mainly silver with gold accents.
The absence of a 925 or 585 numerical marking on a piece is therefore an infallible sign that it is a fake. However, counterfeiters are getting smarter and sometimes include these markings on counterfeit Pandora coins, even if the charm or piece of jewellery is not actually made from this material.
An example of a piece of Pandora silver jewellery with the S925 marking.
3. The crown on the O
Then look for the crown above the "O" in "PANDORA". Since 2008, Pandora necklaces and bracelets have featured a small crown motif over the "O" on their clasp. Although this is not an official way of identifying a Pandora counterfeit, if your clasp does not have a crown over the "O"', it might be worth doing a little more investigation into the authenticity of the piece.
What's more, the clasp on an authentic Pandora bracelet will not be magnetic. The inside of the clasp will be oxidised, giving it a tarnished appearance.
On the left is a fake Pandora jewel without the brand's "O" crown, and on the right is a real Pandora jewel with the "O" crown.
4. The threaded collar
Next, if it's a charm bracelet, make sure it has the threaded collar. This is used to keep the charms and pearls in if the clasp is open. Other brands, especially imitations, don't have these threads. If you have a genuine Pandora pearl or charm, make sure it screws smoothly onto the bracelet, and is not too tight or too loose.
But check this carefully, as putting a fake charm on a genuine Pandora bracelet can damage the bracelet, as the thread on fake charms is often very poorly made.
An example of a Pandora bracelet with the filleté necklace.
5. Swarovski crystals
Secondly, a common counterfeit for Pandora is one made with "Swarovski" crystals. This is because Pandora has never used Swarovski crystals in the design of its jewellery). This could be a future design idea, but it's not currently the case, so if you see it, tell yourself it's just a counterfeit Pandora jewel.
Example of a fake Pandora Murano pearl with Swarovski crystals.
Curious to find out more about counterfeits? Read our articles on Chanel's No. 5 perfume and Huda Beauty's Liquid Matte.
Buy your second-hand Pandora jewellery easily with Obvy
If you already have a Pandora bracelet and would like to buy new charms to add to your jewellery without breaking the bank every time, the best solution is to go to online auction sites to find the ideal pearl. Many of the brand's fans sell their Pandora jewellery on online ad sites in order to buy new ones. It's therefore possible that you'll find what you're looking for in these ads, with the advantage of being able to get it for much less than in a boutique or on the official Pandora website.
However, this means that you need to be careful when looking at second-hand ads online, as some people may take advantage of them to try and rip you off. So don't hesitate to ask for more photos of the jewellery if you need to verify in detail the information we've shared with you above. What's more, to ensure the security of your second-hand online purchase, we recommend that you use a secure payment method such as Obvy. With Obvy, you can pay for your Pandora jewellery in total security, and wait to receive it to ensure that it is not a scam. If the seller tries to rip you off, you can turn around at any time and simply recover the amount of the transaction at no extra cost. Happy shopping with Obvy!