Since centuries, people love to own gold and silver jewellery. The purity of these metals is questionable these days. Authentic jewelers usually recommend buyers to purchase hallmark jewellery. Hallmarking is a vital component of safe jewellery shopping. In brief, hallmark refers to an official mark made on items as a symbol of genuinity.

 The Bureau of Indian Standards controls hallmarking in India. To curb the malign selling of jewellery, Govt. of India has initiated hallmarking of jewellery.  In fact, there are 5 marks are required to be present on Hallmark silver jewellery.

To a get license for selling BIS hallmark jewellery, jewelers are needed to go through several tests.  Sometimes, the licenses of jewelers get ratified in the case of non-compliance with BIS legal proceedings.  

What are those 5 marks of Hallmarking?

Buyers are advised to buy hallmark silver jewellery only.  But before buying any hallmarked silver jewellery, one must confirm these 5 marks on it. The marks/signs are given as below:

BIS Standard mark- This is a mark of authenticity of jewellery. Under this, third party assessor undertakes the task of hallmarking.

Purity Grade- For silver ornaments, the purity is expressed in three digits.

Hallmarking centre’s mark- This is a sign of hallmarking centre verified by the BIS.

Year of marking- It is an alphabetic symbol specifying the year of marking. BIS decides the year of marking.

Jeweler’s Mark- Every jewellery piece also carries jeweler’s identification mark.

If somebody has knowledge about the five marks of hallmarking then his risk of being deceived reduces a lot. So, don’t make a mistake of buying silver jewellery in haste.