The Glitter of Gold
If you love to wear jewelry, you better know how to buy it too. There is no point in remaining doubtful whether you paid the right amount for the particular piece of jewelry that you bought, or being unsure about the purity of gold in the jewelry. Your mom and grand mom had grown wise with experience and they knew how to buy good jewelry. It’s just a matter of learning about the brass tacks of buying gold jewelry, and you too can be a master in no time.
The purity of gold is measured in karat and 24 karat gold is the purest form of gold. But gold in its purest form cannot be used to craft ornaments, and so it needs to be mixed with other metals like copper, silver or nickel. While gold ornaments are mostly available in 21 karat gold, diamond jewelry is usually crafted with 18 karat gold. At times it is difficult to tell about the purity of gold just by looking at the ornament, so you need to check on the certification that comes with the ornaments.
Hallmark is one of the most popular certifications throughout the world, and when you buy any piece of jewelry with the hallmark certification you can be sure about the purity of gold. Since the old traditional jewelers have given way to the branded jewelry stores, the issues related to purity of gold have somehow dwindled since all the branded jewelry comes with hallmark seal and certification.
So the smarter way to go shopping for gold jewelry is to buy only hallmarked certified jewelry. To find out whether a piece of jewelry is genuinely certified by hallmark there are certain things to watch out for like BIS logo, fineness number (purity level), the jeweler’s stamp, the year of marking and the hallmark imprint.
To buy hallmarked jewelry, you might have to shell out some extra money but then it makes more sense because you can be sure of the quality that you are buying.
When you buy a piece of gold jewelry, you’re not just paying for the gold by weight, but the cost also includes things like craft men’s labor, any special effects like a rhodium polish and so on.
