Planning to buy gold? Check its purity before buying

​Buying gold may seem to be a simple task. But with limited knowledge and information about the gold you’re buying, the purchase may end up being a meaningless one. So, how do you make sure that the gold you are purchasing is valuable? Don’t worry, we will help you make the job easier.

Before buying any gold jewellery, you need to check for its purity. To verify the purity of gold that you buy, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), a government authority, goes through a process of marking every gold piece with some information which certifies the purity of gold.

The hallmarking process is done to protect buyers against impurity and necessitate gold manufacturers to maintain legal standards while making the gold.

According to BIS, gold buyers need to look for the components explained below to ensure the god they purchase is worth.

BIS Logo

BIS is the only Indian government-approved agency for hallmarking any form of gold. When buying gold jewellery, you need to check for the BIS logo as it indicates that the purity is verified and stamped in a licensed BIS lab.

The BIS hallmarking process, however, is voluntary and not all jewellers sell BIS hallmarked gold. There are quite a few jewellers whose jewellery is not verified by BIS. In order to buy genuine and verified gold, make sure you buy it from a reputed maker and check for the BIS logo.

Karat and Fineness

Check for the karat and fineness number. As 24K gold is extremely delicate and bendable, gold is alloyed with other metals like silver and zinc to give durability. According to BIS, gold hallmarking is done for three levels of karats i.e. 22K, 18K and 14K gold.

Fineness number is another name for 22K gold. For instance, if a 22K gold weighs 10 gm, it contains 9.16 gm of pure gold per 100 grams of alloy. Similarly, 18K gold contains 75% pure gold and 14K gold contains 58.5% pure gold.

Check the Weight

Gold jewellery is generally sold by weight in India. Most pieces are often added with some kind of precious stones (may be diamond, ruby etc.), making the overall jewellery heavier. And, jewellers weigh the jewellery in entirety, which means that the buyer might end up paying for the gold which wasn’t bought. So, be cautious while buying stone-studded jewellery.

The aforementioned components are vital while buying gold. Apart from these, make sure you calculate the making charges and get a good discount while buying your favourite gold jewellery.

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