BIS employees test chemicals in their laboratory. Pictures by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Dipak Kujur: There has been a lot of hue and cry over the hallmarking of gold items and jewellery. Can you explain how can one be assured about the quality of the product from this mark?

Standardising the purity of a gold item is known as hallmarking. The jewellery specification is tested in terms of carats and then the manufacturer is given the right to put a hallmark on the product. Jewellery is tested in BIS-approved Assaying and Hallmarking Centres (A&HMC) only.

For example, if one goes to the market to purchase a 22-carat gold product, he should be looking for the 916 mark on the hallmark, which indicates the quality of the product. This number is known as fineness number and every consumer should check it out before buying the product.

Generally, the hallmark stamp comes as the fineness code, followed by an A&HMC logo along with a code letter which denotes the year of manufacture. For example, ?D? in a logo indicates that the product was manufactured in 2004. In case one finds it difficult to understand what the symbols mean, he may contact the public relations cell at our office.