Buying gold jewellery is not an easy decision to take. It takes a lot of planning and investment. It is not easy for a common person to just go shopping and buy their favorite gold ornaments designs. They put their hard-earned money to fulfill the dreams of their family members. Generally, the gold ornaments are bought for investment, for gifts, or family members but what happens when you buy something this expensive and precious and get cheated. The jewelry provided by the jeweler doesn’t need to have fewer impurities and more gold as they mention in their bill. A common person needs to understand what they are buying is authentic and the same as they are promised. To resolve such a situation government has introduced the concept of Hallmarking jewelry and made it mandatory for the jewelers to get registered and then certified under it.
Hallmarking is the certification for the purity of the gold as per the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). The BIS issue a certificate to the jewelers after testing the purity of the gold. The tests are performed at BIS-recognized hallmarking centers. For getting the certification, the jewelers need to get themselves registered with the BIS.
Now, few people know about hallmarked jewellery but many of them still don’t know how to make sure that their favorite traditional gold jewellery they are buying is hallmarked or not. Here are some tips which can help you in identifying original hallmarked jewellery.
- According to BIS, a hallmarked sign consists of three things – a triangle mark that denotes BIS, the caratage that shows purity, and the jeweler’s mark.
- When the latest gold jewellery designs of any jeweler pass a purity test, they were issued with a certificate which a jeweler needs to display in front of the shop. If they don’t, you can ask for the certificate before buying any gold ornaments designs from that jeweler. Also, you must check for the address of the shop and the address mentioned in the receipt. If it doesn’t match then there may be something wrong with the license.
- Always ask for the bill that mentions the hallmarking charges. Every jeweler must provide a break-up bill with complete details but if he doesn’t you have full authority to ask for it. It contains information including the assaying and hallmarking centers (AHC) charges that are paid by the jeweler.
- If you doubt the jewelry you have received, you can yourself get it checked at the AHC by paying a certain amount to them. There are various assaying and hallmarking centers and the complete list is available on the BIS website. Beware of the frauds as there are certain AHC whose license is canceled yet they continue the testing and take charges from the consumers.
- After the testing, a report is generated by the AHC that includes all the information related to purity. You can compare that report with the one given by the jeweler and if the purity is found less as given by the jeweler you can ask for compensation from him. It is the responsibility of the jeweler to provide the best quality to the customers.
