Whenever we have to buy gold (either jewellery or bars), the first concern is to check the purity. But, unfortunately, it’s not in any specific county that purity of gold is the primary concern, but gold buyers worldwide have the same question in their minds. So to clear this ambiguity, you must check the Hallmark embedded on your gold.
Remember!
You must go for two things before buying gold. Gold rate and Hallmark.
What is Gold Hallmark
Gold Hallmarks are the sign on gold by the goldsmiths or their manufacturers that indicates gold has passed through the necessary quality assurance test.
The process of quality assurance is known as hallmarking, and now it is mandatory by almost every country’s government.
So in other words we can assume that Hallmarking of gold is a purity certification and increase the confidence of both buyer and seller. In Addition, this way people will be protected from cheating and their gold will be protected. They can confidently invest in gold.
Benifits of Hallmarking
It will help you with two things:
1- Ensures purity
2- Resale value
These are the Hallmark signs on gold.
Hallmarking plays an important role, and these hallmarks indicate that gold is pure and fulfils international standards. So in this way, it helps you in both things which I have defined above.
Means purity assurance or resale value. Moreover, You can sell gold having Hallmark worldwide without having any problem. That’s the beauty of hallmarking.
Gold Hallmark Symbols- Gold Hallmark identification
As we know hallmark is a sign of purity, now you must have a question in mind what does these symbols indicate?. Ok, let us explain.
These gold hallmark symbols consist of four things and identify the following things:
1- The year of Marking
Year of marking simply defines in which year this particular piece of gold has been hallmarked.
2- Jewellers Identification Mark
It shows the identity of the jeweller. It simply means from which jewellers shop this gold jewellery has been bought. Moreover, In case of any misconduct, the jeweller will be held responsible and you are totally secure in that way.
3- Hallmarking Centre’s Mark
By hallmarking centre we mean which assaying centre identifies the purity of that gold. Moreover, it will be easy to find from which particular centre this piece of gold has gone through the process of hallmarking.
Hallmarking centre after a detailed testing process declared how many carats this particular piece of gold contains. In simple means shows the purity and impurity.
4-Purity and Fitness Grade
Purity and fitness grade shows the purity of the gold. This sign may be as 22K, 24K, and so on. These are the symbol used in gold purity defining.
Gold Hallmark Numbers
These hallmarks are embedded with lessor so that these can not be removed or blurred with the passage of time or its use.
Hallmarking of Gold Jewellery-(Process)
Before embedding hallmarks on gold jewellery, it has been gone through various examinations. These steps are following:
1- First of all, a little part is cut down from a large piece of gold. Then it’s weighed.
2- After this, with the help of a machine, the exact quantity of gold in that part is extracted.
3- Then this part of gold is mixed with silver and led. Moreover, it is weighed again.
4- This mixture of gold, silver, and led is melted in a fire furnace. By doing this with the exception of silver all other impurities are separated.
5- Then this part is cooled down, which takes place as a small particle. After it with help of the hammer and annealing process, it has been shaped into the round cornet.
6- To separate the silver from that cornets, they put them into the acid.
7- After all of it, this small piece of gold is weighed again and then its real purity is found. Moreover, then hallmark signs are ejected on gold with laser technology.
Why is it necessary to buy only Hallmark Gold?
Gold is an expensive metal and also very rare. Therefore, a person with no experience or minor cannot precisely judge its purity merely by seeing it. It is even impossible for the experienced person too. Only an expert person having years of knowledge or observation can do this.
So it gives you a feel of protection when going to buy an expensive product like gold. But, on the other hand, it is also observed that gold-coated jewellery was sold instead of pure gold. And the main thing to be noted, it has no hallmark on it.
A famous jeweller, Kalyan jeweller’s owner Ramesh Kalyanaraman says, “Mandatory hallmarking will standardize the purity of gold jewellery and take the industry a long way towards being more structured, as well as further push the ongoing shift of business and customers from the unorganized to the organized jewellery segment. But, more importantly, the new regulatory framework will ensure that customers get a fair value for their new jewellery purchases as well as their exchanged or collateralized old gold”.
So that’s why Hallmark is important as it gives the feel of purity and satisfaction to both buyer and seller. It will be an outstanding initiative to legalize Hallmark as it is in the USA.