The Hallmarking of Gold Jewellery in India:
HALLMARKING- CERTIFICATION OF GOLD
Government of India took the cognizance and understood the necessity of protecting the public in its purchases of gold jewellery specially with regard to standards of fineness and the prevention of adulteration, be it deliberate or accidental. The principle objectives of the Hallmarking Scheme are to protect the public against the fraud of adulteration and to oblige manufacturers to maintain legal standards of fineness.
Hallmarking is the accurate determination and official recording of the proportionate content of precious metal in gold. Hallmarks are thus official marks used in many countries as a guarantee of purity or fineness of gold jewellery.
Taking cognizance of these aspects the RBI Standing Committee on Gold and Precious Metals opined that introduction of a Hallmarking System would not only protect the public from fraud, but also assist exports of jewellery. While agreeing on this, the Committee reckoned that compulsory certification of gold would not be implementable on account of the massive structure of trade. Recommending the pursuance of a voluntary scheme, it emphasized the deviations in purity of fine metal should invoke penalties under legislation and BIS was named as the sole agency in the country for Hallmarking of gold jewellery under the provisions of the BIS Act, 1986.
BIS, as the National Standards Body of India is primarily engaged in the preparation and promotion of standards and operation of different quality certification schemes. In this context, the BIS Precious Metals Sectional Committee (MTD 10) has formulated and published the following Indian Standards on Gold and Gold Alloys:
a) IS 1417 Grades of gold and gold alloys, Jewellery/Artefacts-Fineness and Marking
b) IS 1418 Assaying of Gold in Gold Bullion, Gold alloys and Gold Jewellery/ Artefacts - Cupellation (Fire Assay Method)
c) IS 2790 Guidelines for manufacture of 23,22,21,18,14 and 9 carat gold alloys
d) IS 3095 Gold Solders for use in manufacture of Jewellery
BIS hallmark for gold jewellery consists of five components:
(1) The BIS logo
(2) A three digit number (out of a set of six pre-defined values) indicating the purity of the gold in part-per-thousand-format viz; 958, 916, 875, 750, 585, 375. Thus a BIS 916 hallmark would certify to a purity of 916 per 1000, that is 91.6%, translating to a 22 carat purity of gold.
Purity grade:
958 Corresponding to 23 Carat
916 Corresponding to 22 Carat
875 Corresponding to 21 Carat
750 Corresponding to 18 Carat
585 Corresponding to 14 Carat
375 Corresponding to 9 Carat
(3) Logo of the assaying centre
(4) A code denoting the year of hallmarking e.g.
‘A’ is 2000
‘B’ – 2001
‘C’ – 2002
‘D’ – 2003
‘E’ – 2004
‘F’ – 2005
‘G’ – 2006
‘H’ – 2007
‘J’ – 2008
'K' – 2009
'L' – 2010
'M' – 2011
(5) Logo/code of the jeweller