Charm Bracelet

3 easy ways to tell if your Pandora beads are genuine

The Pandora brand is a hugely popular designer jewellery brand, one that is growing in popularity and looks set to last. However, as with all popular brands, there are a lot of imitations available, which try to convince customer that they are a genuine Pandora jewellery piece.

I’ve pulled together three of the main ways to check that your Pandora jewellery, and any Pandora jewellery you may be considering purchasing is the real deal.

1. The Pandora Hallmark

This is the most important indicator as to whether an item is a genuine Pandora jewellery piece, as all Pandora pieces, beads, chains and bracelets, have all been branded with the Pandora company hallmark.

Along with the Pandora hallmark, most Pandora pieces are also now marked with the letters “ALE” followed by either 925ss for silver pieces or 585 on gold items. Pandora bracelets with the Pandora clasp carry the letters ALE on the inside of the clasp.

The letters ALE stem from Per Enevoldsen, who was the founder of Pandora jewellery, his grandfather was called Algot Enevoldsen, or ALE. So the letters ALE not only represents Per’s grandfather, but are also the original jeweller’s hallmark.

2. Have you bought your Pandora Jewellery from an authorised Pandora retailer?

One of the easiest ways to ensure you are purchasing an authentic Pandora piece is to only purchase from authorised Pandora Jewellery retailers as only certain retailers are licensed to sell Pandora jewellery.

If you are considering buying Pandora jewellery from a new source, you can check whether they are an authorised Pandora retailers by looking at the list of dealers on the Pandora website.

This distributor list is broken down by region, so you can check dealers in your area. If you are considering a new online retailer, check their contact details to see where they are based and then check to see if they are registered within that region. I do recommend a few Pandora retailers here, all of which are authorised genuine Pandora retailers.

You can also purchase Pandora jewellery through eBay, however I would advise extreme caution here, as eBay sellers are never authorised Pandora sellers. If you do purchase through eBay there is no guarantee it is a genuine Pandora item. I am not advising you to rule out eBay completely; however I would air on the side of caution with these purchases.

3. Match your Pandora item to the Pandora site

The final method is to match your Pandora item against the ones shown on the official Pandora website or on an authorised dealer site.

Please note that if you are matching your items against images on the official Pandora site this site will only display images for beads which are currently in production. So if your bead is not displaying here it does not mean it is an imitation, it may be a retired Pandora bead.

When you are comparing your Pandora product with the image on the website there are a few things to look out for to help you determine whether your Pandora jewellery is genuine.

With the Pandora Murana glass beads the designs are created within the glass and runs right through the bead. However many imitation glass beads offer hand painted designs, patterns slightly raised, or the design painted on the outside of the glass. If the bead you are looking at has painted glass you will know it is an imitation.

Hopefully you will find these tips useful when purchasing your Pandora jewellery pieces to ensure that you only get authentic Pandora pieces.

If your are new to the world of Pandora, then we recommend you read our Pandora Guide.