Nowadays if you go to a gold jewellry shop you might hear ‘916’, ‘BIS’, ‘ISO’ etc. Yes, they are all part of assay certification. An Assay Certification is an accreditation done by the authority to prove the purity and legitimacy of precious metals used in trade. The authority mentioned here is called as assay office. There are various standards for various countries. In this process the trade metal is metallurgically tested to make sure that the purity of metal is as per records. Usually test pass is notified as symbols like hallmark, punze or poincon.
BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) is the assay office in India. They are the authority who give certification based on the purity of precious metal. In India hallmark is being used. These kind of certification provides the customer a belief of trust to purchase precious metals. India is one of the major consumer of precious metal especially gold and silver. More than trade aspect, gold and silver is part of our beauty consciousness. Thus India became a better breeding ground of gold and silver trade. Apart from gold and silver, platinum, gems, diamonds, other stones also make their way into India.
Understanding Hallmark
A hallmark consists of 5 things
- BIS mark (Logo of BIS Hall Mark)
- Fineness number (3 digit number eg. 916, 750 etc. which denotes the 22 Carat or 18 carat etc.)
- Logo of Assaying center
- Jeweller’s identification (Logo or Code)
- Manufacturing year (Usually a code is used to identify this)
BIS Hall Mark in Gold
Carat indicates the purity of Gold. BIS gives the number which shows the percentage of Gold. For example an 18 carat gold would be having 75% purity marked as 750 while hall marking. Higher purity gold like 23 Carat costs much higher than lower.
| Fineness Number | Gold Purity (Carat) |
| 999 | 24 Carat (Pure Gold) |
| 958 | 23 Carat |
| 916 | 22 Carat |
| 875 | 21 Carat |
| 750 | 18 Carat |
| 585 | 14 Carat |
| 375 | 9 Carat |
How does this certification help you?
Next time when go to purchase gold or any precious metal you check for these symbols or marks on them. If you find a BIS-hallmark symbol then it meet all the standards in India. Also see that the price of gold may vary according to their fineness or caratage, 24k is the purest followed by 23k, 22k, and 18k.
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After reading this, I’ve just gone and checked all my jewellery to see all the stamps. I made sure that what I had was good, rather than fake - thank goodness. For the ones that don’t have marks, I’m going to get them assay certified now. It will protect my investments and also be good for insurance purposes.
I had heard about the BIS but did not knew that this was a part of assay certification. The five things mentioned is really helpful and it should be more publicized, so that the common man is not fooled around. 24K and 23K gold is not available in Indian market. We get only 22K and 18K gold in India.
India has for ages been a center for trade in precious metals and gemstones and this can be traced back t centuries. In this country, the BIS issues the certification and hallmark is the certificate used.Purchasers should always insist upon viewing the certification to be assured of the authenticity of the metal or gemstone.
An interesting article, providing some useful information regarding the gold and its authenticity. It is good to know what you have to look for in case you decide to purchase some gold in order to sell it in the future. One must always take care of the investment he or she made.