In recent times you must have heard people speak about having a hallmark stamp on their jewelry items and other precious metal articles. And why not? After all, this stamp became a huge topic of discussion among people today when the government made it mandatory to sell jewelry on June 16, 2021.

Statistics say that only near 30% of all precious metal ornaments have hallmarks and are properly verified for their purity. This means that a vast majority of people today are prone to fraud and illegal activities happening during such high-value deals with their jewelers and buyers.

So what exactly is this stamp and why has it suddenly been given such high importance? Furthermore, how can you make check it in your possessions or get them stamped in case they aren’t? Keep reading to discover the answers.

Understanding the Terms While Selling Jewelry

A BIS Hallmark is a stamp put on your valuable ornaments made of precious metals like gold and silver to certify and assure its quality, purity, and fineness. The process of certification is called hallmarking.

When this happens, it means that your articles satisfy and conform to the quality standards set by BIS, or the Bureau of Indian Standards, which is India’s national standards body and responsible for conducting the hallmarking procedure. That is why they considered hallmark compulsory to buy and sell jewelry.

What Does It Consist Of?

Sometimes, local buyers put their own name as a stamp on the ornaments and people think that the items are hallmarked. This happens because they are not aware of what the hallmark actually consists of and what it means.

To avoid falling prey to such fraud and enduring a loss on your articles, here are the things that make up the stamp and that you need to make sure to see in your prized possessions before buying or selling them to a gold buyer:

• The BIS logo: it looks like a triangle and shows that the purity of your item in question is verified by a BIS certified and licensed laboratory
• Carat value and purity percentage: as you might already know, this shiny yellow metal comes in different purities including 22K, 18K, 14K, etc. This is also indicated in the stamp followed by the purity value in percentage, which we will get into later.
• AHC’s mark: the identification number or mark of the certified Assaying and Hallmarking center (AHC) responsible for the stamp.
• Jeweler’s mark or the number for identification and verification. You can find out the names and addresses of the jewelers from the official website of BIS and discover if the venue you are dealing at is really certified.

Hallmark Rules and Regulation

It is important as per the recommended guidelines that you tally the jeweler’s address of the shop given on his license. Furthermore, make sure to see the bill break up and see the hallmarking charges to avoid any extra losses.

As per the rules, regardless of the weight of your possessions. The charge for hallmarking is INR 35 plus GST per item for the yellow metal and INR 25 per item plus GST for silver accessories. It further costs INR 200 in case of any consignment.

It is important for you to know that hallmarking is not mandatory for specific articles like certain small jewelry items, small accessories like fountain pens and watches, items weighing less than two grams, and the ones needed for scientific, medical, veterinary, or dental purposes.

Furthermore, the thread, coins, or any shape made from this metal’s bullion like sheet, bar, coil, strip, etc. also have all been exempted from the rule.

The Different Purities of the Yellow Metal

As you might already know, the shiny yellow metal comes in different purity levels and people buy its articles based on their taste and budget levels. Let us get into understanding it further so you can get the best cash for gold on your items.

The unit Karat (K) is used to measure how pure your precious metal ornaments are. There are different numbers of it, such as 24K, 22K, 18K, 14K, and 10K. The purest variant of this metal is the 24K, which is 99.99% pure. But it is very soft. Hence it is not easy to make it into precious ornaments and beautiful designer jewelry items.

Thus, the highest possible purity of the yellow metal used in the common transaction is 22K. But now you can buy and sell 24K gold in the forms of bullion bars, ingots, small biscuits. Sometimes people also sell gold coins for cash. Such variants make it very easy for common people to invest in this prized article and later sell jewelry to get the highest possible market value returns against it.

Previously, karat values like 20K, 23K, and 24K are not included in the hallmarking process but now the government allows it.

Now to see the purity in the percentage of your articles, you will have to calculate it by dividing the current karat value by 24 and multiplying the resultant value into 100. If an article is 24K, then 24/24 equals 1, and 1*100 equals 100.

How did Hallmark help To Determine the Purity Of Gold Jewelry?

Hence your article is 100% pure if 24K. But we say 99.99% as there is always a tiny amount of possible impurity in the metal bullion that is commercially available. Similarly, 22/24 equals 0.916. And that into 100 is 91.6. Hence if your article is 22K, it is 91.6% pure.

Going by that, 18K is 75%, 14K is 58.3%, and 10K is 41.6%. Therefore, in your hallmark stamp, the karat value followed by percentages will look like this:

• 24K999
• 22K916
• 18K750
• 14K583
• 10K416

Why Is It Needed To Sell Jewelry?

It might be obvious by now how important hallmarking is in buying and selling your gold. The stamp helps certify the purity and value of your accessories. It also helps you get the value that you truly deserve on them.

Otherwise, small buyers can easily deceive you and give you fewer returns than what your possessions are actually worth when there is no certification. It furthermore helps establish a fixed standard of quality and market value across the country. This is to ensure that you get fair cash against gold on your transactions.

So to save yourselves from fraudulent and illegal activities and losses on your valuable items, ensure having the BIS hallmark on them and look for all the components properly. In case the items are old or inherited and do not have the certification, then no worries, because the government has allowed for their sale.

How to Sell Jewelry and Make Use of It?

You can easily sell Jewelry to a professional and experienced buyer like Cashfor Gold and Silverkings Pvt Ltd. They help you to get the highest returns to sell jewelry.

With state-of-the-art industry-quality equipment and internationally-approved methods of analysis and evaluation, they determine the true market worth of your articles. They will immediately give you cash in your hands against them for the worth that you truly deserve.

Furthermore, you can also opt for their smooth and hassle-free home pick-up service. So now you have the opportunity to call their diligent staff members home for the transactions. They offer various modes of transaction like NFT, RTGS, Paytm to transfer money to your bank account. Not only this, but you can also get instant cash for gold from them.

They will evaluate your possessions right in front of your eyes and not rely on your bills to determine the price to give you. This way you can get the best offers on your ornaments right at your doorstep. You can also make easy and quick money against them sitting in the comfort of your homes.