Hallmarking Jewellery
Government has made it mandatory for all the jewellers to sell hallmarked gold jewellery as of 15th January 2021, for 14Kt,18kt and 22kt.
What is Hallmark?
Hallmark is a mark that is put on objects made of valuable metals, giving information about the quality of the metal and when and where the object was made.
Hallmark done on the gold jewellery comprises of four things :
- BIS logo (BIS: Bureau of Indian standards)
- Purity of gold; It is marked as 14k585 for 14kt gold, 18k750 for 18kt gold and 22k916 for 22kt gold.
- AHC’s mark (AHC: Assaying and Hallmark centres)
- Jeweller’s Mark
The purity of gold has two parts, 18kt750 means 18 karat gold and 750 in fineness, which means out of 1000 parts, 750 parts is gold and rest comprises of other alloys.
Nemichand Bamalwa and Sons were pioneer in selling 22/22K gold jewellery since 1987.
Government is very strict in following the compliance, we also need to be vigilant in our purchases. A little awareness goes a long way.
Some pointers on hallmarking:
*It usually takes 7-8 hours to get a jewellery hallmarked. There are BIS approved Assaying and Hallmarking centres (AHC’s), only they can hallmark the jewellery.
*Cost of hallmarking is just 35 rupees per jewellery.
*Jewellery as small as 2 grams can be hallmarked.
*Presently only gold jewellery is mandatory to be hallmarked but one can always ask for hallmark on gold coins, bars and other items.
*The list of “BIS licenced AHC’s” and “BIS registered jewellers” can be found on www.bis.gov.in
*The four signs do not interfere with the design of the jewellery.
*The gold part of the jewellery is only marked with hallmark, hence all jewellery with diamonds or other precious or semi precious stones can be hallmarked.
**If your gold jewellery is wrongly hallmarked, one can file a complaint with the BIS to get double the differential amount funded.
