Hallmark is a quality control mark placed on an article made of precious metals-Gold, Platinum, Silver etc. It is applied after accurate testing by trusted person, neutral laboratory or assay office. Hallmarks are thus official marks used in many countries as a guarantee of purity or fineness of gold jewellery. Different countries have different analysis departments. Who test precious metal objects and apply Hallmark to the article or ornament. Hallmark is the world’s first known instance of consumer protection law, in UK it date back to about 1300 AD.
Government of India' has identified BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) a sole agency in India to operate the scheme of Hallmarking. BIS Hallmarking scheme is voluntary in nature and is operating under BIS Act, rules & regulations. The BIS Hallmarking scheme has been aligned with International criteria on Hallmarking. Licence is given to the jeweller as per the scheme of Hallmarking by BIS. The BIS certified jewelers can get their jewellery hallmarked from any of BIS recognized Assaying and Hallmarking Centre. The recognition to an Assaying and Hallmarking Centre is given against BIS criteria Doc: HMS/RAHC/GO1 which is in line with International criteria on Marking and Control of Precious metals.
A Hallmark, consists of five visible marks placed on the jewellery piece, which are
1) BIS Mark (Hallmark logo)
2) Fineness number – Purity of Metal (corresponding to given karatage)
3) Assaying and Hallmarking Centre's Mark (Logo),
4) Jeweller's identification Mark and
5) Year of Hallmarking denoted by a code letter and decided by BIS (e.g. code letter `A' was approved
by BIS for year 2000, `B' being used for the year 2001 and `C' for 2002 and 'H' for 2007).
The marking is done either using punches or laser marking machine. The marks are usually very small to be legible with naked eyes you have to use a magnifying lens to see it.
Fineness and Karatage
958 used for 23 karat purity
916 used for 22 karat purity
875 used for 21 karat purity
750 used for 18 karat purity
585 used foe 14 karat purity
375 used for 9 karat purity
Why Hallmarking?
By purches Hallmarked Jewellery, customers get the guarantee of the jewellery article that the article has been independently tested to be of the stated minimum purity. Hallmark also inform and protect vendor from unintentionally mis-describing an article. The presence of a Hallmark avoids the necessity of re-testing a piece whenever it is valued or offered for resale to other vender.
