All that glitters is not gold! But then how pure is the glittering gold? Even the most experienced jeweller cannot tell how much precious metal, ie gold, is there in a jewellery article, just by looking at it. Price, colour or weights do not reveal the amount of alloying metals that have added to a piece of jewellery whether it is coated/ plated by gold.
Though our jewellers are familiar with the internationally recognised standards of quality assurance, still an uncertainty prevails in the minds of jewellers and manufactures as the gold purchased from different sources cannot be certified. Due to non-existence of proper analytical facilities, some cases of the undercarating or the proper ratio of contents has claimed. The need to protect the creditability of the gold jewellery has called for introducing hallmarking.
Hallmarking is assurance/certifying the quality of gold used in jewellery through an internationally accredited independent body. It is an internationally recognised system of quality assurance of precious metals. It is envied by many countries in order to boost their trade of precious metals and to protect the consumers.
Assaying can be best described as an analytical test of determining gold content in the gold jewellery and the certification of the gold content against standards is "hallmarking". To be more precise; 9+ssaying refers to the fineness denotes the actual content of precious metal in the alloy used and hallmarking refers to the physical marking a piece of jewellery according to specific laws to certify the purity of metal. Hallmarks are small markings stamped on gold, silver, palladium & platinum articles.
Buying hallmarked Jewellery is beneficial in many ways. You are assured of the gold content, hence the value of your purchase. It protects the public against fraud & traders against unfair competition and it will ensure that mixing of other metals in gold will be within the permitted limits in accordance to gold standards. It is also useful in case of resale as there would be no doubt on the gold contents.
Assaying and hallmarking are the third party quality control and the assurance tools of the jewellery industry. Hallmarking is the solution to a conventional jewellery retailer against threat of branding and branded jewellery. It is the authentication of the accurate ratio of valuable metals and base metals used internationally in the jewellery making.
So, there is an ample need of introducing assaying and hallmarking in Pakistan. Hallmarks are thus authorised series of marks onto precious metals used in many countries as a guarantee of purity and quality. Pakistan will surely attract the foreign direct investment once the hallmarking is introduced in the jewellery manufacturing Industry and setting up of assaying and hallmarking offices.
Consequently, by introducing hallmarking of jewellery in Pakistan, we can create awareness among jewellers, consumers and traders that will help to overcome the declining image of the Pakistani jewellery and credibility in the International market. It will provide broader base of exports of gold jewellery & will be used as marketing tool eventually developing Pakistan as a reliable market of jewellery.
Furthermore; hallmarking will also benefit in terms of customer's satisfaction for quality and value. To the jeweller; hallmarking will provide a strong evidence of his commitment to quality and assurance of consistency in purity and quality of gold jewellery.
Comments
Comments are closed.