Assaying and Hallmarking Centre's Mark

The Logo of BIS recognized Assaying and Hallmarking Centre
where the jewellery has been assayed and hallmarked

Year of Marking

Code letter represents the year of hallmarking of jewellery
and is decided by BIS e.g. letter 'A' Donates Year 2000

Jewellers Mark

Logo of BIS Certified Jeweller/Jewellery Manufacturer

As per this scheme the jewellery retailer/manufacturer desirous of obtaining a licence apply to BIS for use of Standard Mark (Hallmark) on their jewellery. After registration, a Preliminary Inspection for verification of premises retailing/manufacturing, testing facilities and competence of testing personnel is carried by BIS Officials. A sample is drawn from the jewellers retail/manufacturing premises for independent testing. Based on the satisfactory Preliminary Inspection report and test report of the sample drawn during inspection, licence is granted to the jeweller.

After grant of licence, the jeweller (retailer/manufacturer) has to follow a BIS approved Scheme of Testing and Inspection on a continuing basis to have confidence in the homogeneity and purity of the gold jewellery offered for hallmarking. A BIS certified jewellers (retailer/manufacturers) has right to register himself with any of the BIS recognized Assaying and Hallmarking Centres to get his jewellery hallmarked. BIS maintains surveillance on the certified jewellers, at a defined periodicity. Market surveillance involves collection of hallmarked gold jewellery from licensee's retail outlet/manufacturing premises and having it tested for conformity in BIS recognized Hallmarking Centre.

Deviations in degree of purity of fine metal and observance of operations not in conformance to the system may result in cancellation of BIS licence, and invoke legal proceedings for penalties under the BIS Act, Rules and Regulations.

A Hallmarking Centre desirous of obtaining recognition apply to BIS alongwith their Quality Manual ensuring implementation of BIS criteria on hallmarking and Quality Management System by the Centre. After ensuring the adequacy of the Quality Manual documented by the Centre with respect to all the requirements of the BIS criteria and commitment of top management to implement Quality management system, a Preliminary Visit of the centre is planned by BIS. The main objectives of the Preliminary visit are to verify the implementation level of Quality Management System, to have an idea of size of organization, to know its various activities, total manpower and to calculate the number of mandays required for the assessment of the centre. An assessment of the centre is carried out by a team of trained/expert officials from BIS or from organizations of repute in India like India Govt. Mint (IGM). During the assessment, implementation of the documented system, availability of sampling and hallmarking facilities, availability of complete testing facilities as per IS 1418:1999, competence of manpower and their training, availability of adequate safety and security arrangement and commitment to follow BIS guidelines issued from time to time is ensured. Based on satisfactory assessment report of the assessment team, recognition is granted to a centre for a period of 3 years. A BIS recognized Assaying and Hallmarking Centre can register any of the BIS certified jewellers for the purpose of hallmarking. However, the Hallmarking of the gold jewellery will be done only after ensuring the conformance of gold jewellery received from a particular jeweller with respect to declared fineness. The same is returned within 48 hrs. BIS maintains strict surveillance on the Hallmarking Centre during which visits are paid to the Centre and the purity/fineness of the hallmarked samples verified. The recognition of the hallmarking centre after 3 years is renewed based on the satisfactory performance during surveillance assessment.

BIS HALLMARK

A hallmark, consists of five components i.e. BIS Mark, the Fineness number (corresponding to given caratage), Assaying and Hallmarking Centre's Mark, Jeweller's Mark and year of Makring denoted by a code letter and decided by BIS (e.g. code letter `A' was approved by BIS for year 2000, `B' being used for the year 2001 and `C' for 2002). The marking is done either using punches or laser marking machine.

The BIS hallmark, a mark of conformity widely accepted by the consumer bestow the additional confidence to the consumer on the purity of gold jewellery.

The design of the hallmark on gold jewellery is given in the next page. The proposed design for hallmark on silverware is also given.