Monday, 26th February 2007 (3915 views)

From January 2008, the hallmarking of gold jewellery will be mandatory according to Indian authorities.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) announced today that the country's estimated 100 large-scale gold manufacturing sites plus many jewellery retailers will be required to hallmark their gold jewellery.

The deputy director general of BIS, Bhupinder Singh, said that recent market surveys conducted in 16 of India's biggest cities among non-BIS shops found that 90 per cent of gold jewellery samples failed purity tests.

Mr Singh spoke at a seminar about gold jewellery hallmarking at Ambala's Tourist Centre.

He said: "In order to promote hallmark gold among the consumers and bring more jewellers under assaying ambit, the Bureau of Indian Standards is planning to spread its network of assaying."

Awareness sessions will now be held all over India, according to Mr Singh, in order to promote the hallmarking process. The government has also indicated that financial incentives may be available to those involved with hallmarking centres.

In the UK, gold has been hallmarked since 1327 with six separate punch marks indicating the maker, the office carrying out the assay, the standard mark, date letter and duty mark.

 

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