People in India look out for several means of investments to get best returns. One of them is gold investment, which has been a popular option for centuries.
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Gold signifies wealth, prosperity, and good fortune in Indian culture. When it comes to grabbing a piece of the yellow metal, the trend is more prevalent among women than in men because for many women gold is synonymous with a sense of security, holds emotional value and in many cases is also a means of self expression.
Buyers purchase the the physical gold including gold jewellery, coins, and bars from banks, jewellery shops, and authorised dealers. However, the investors should be mindful of imitation products while making a purchase.
The government of India has laid down certain procedures to be followed by the sellers and stakeholders to ensure that authentic and original gold or silver purchase is made. One such mandate is hallmarked jewellery.
Hallmark jewellery:
From April 1, 2023 onwards all gold jewellery and artifacts will need to mandatorily carry a 6-digit alphanumeric HUID or Hallmark Unique Identification. This number will help consumers trace the gold jewellery back to its jeweller and also help check its purity.
As per Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), hallmark is an official mark or series of marks struck on items made of metal, mostly to certify the content of noble metals—such as platinum, gold, or silver. It is the accurate determination of contents of a particular metal in precious metal products. In India, it is used as a guarantee of purity of the metal in the articles.
According to the section 49 of BIS rules, if a hallmarked jewellery is found to be of lesser purity than that of prescribed on jewellery, then the customer shall be entitled for compensation which shall be two times the amount of difference calculated on the basis of shortage of purity for the weight of such article sold and the testing charges.
A hallmark consists of 3 marks, viz, BIS logo, purity of the article and six-digit alphanumeric HUID. Each hallmarked article has a unique HUID number which is traceable.
A person can check the purity of the hallmarked gold jewellery items with the HUID number via the ‘verify HUID’ in the BIS CARE app, available on Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
The app provides information of the jeweller, their registration number, purity of the article, type of article as well as details of hallmarking centre which test and hallmarked the article.
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Using this information, the consumer can verify the information with the purchased article
Unhallmarked jewellery:
A consumer get checked the purity of the unhallmarked gold jewellery at any of the BIS recognised Assaying and Hallmarking Centres (AHCs). The AHCs undertake the testing and provide a test report to the consumer.
A consumer has to pay certain charges to get their gold articles tested. The price of testing four articles is ₹200. For five or more articles, the charges are ₹45 per article.