Metal Purity

Ever noticed how your piece of jewellery usually has some sort of numerical marking in a discreet place? Well that marking carries a little value. It tells you how pure your gold is,or is supposed to be. These are also called ' hallmarks'

• 999 or 995 means 24 karat gold
• 917 or 920 means 22 karat gold
• 875 is 21 karat gold
• 750 is 18 karat gold
• 583 is  14 karat gold.

Jewellery in Dubai is pretty safe to buy in Dubai and that's one of the reasons why its Gold Souk is so famous. Of course the variety and competitive prices are other factors. The Dubai Municipality has set rules and regulations for selling jewellery and they make sure that they are adhered to. A municipal official can come unannounced to a jewellery store and take random pieces of jewellery for purity checking. If the claimed purity differs from the actual purity result, the store is heavily fined and can be shut down as well.  

Therefore jewelers ensure that the goods they are receiving are of the purity they are selling it. Yet some instances do occur where upon selling a piece of jewellery or getting it tested for purity the customer finds out that the jewellery item is not of the purity they thought/purchased it as. Unfortunately these rare instances the jeweller is not always to blame, though they ensure [by testing ] pieces that their jewellery is of the purity they are selling it at, the goldsmith who actually manufactured the jewellery may have lessened the purity accidentally or intentionally. Thus, in some scenarios the jewellers are also unaware of the wrong purity. Though that does not excuse them.

 Usually jewellers do get random items tested upon purchasing jewellery or if the manufacturing is their own, they will be quite sure of what the purity of their item is. No reputed supplier, goldsmith or jeweller will cheat this way, since this affects reputation in the long run and they lose out on potential customers.

So when you go jewellery shopping next time make sure your pieve of jewellery is stamped with its respective purity. Rings and bangles usually carry the hallmark on the inside [ you must really strain your eyes to find it] and the earrings are stamped usually on the back of the earring or on the post of the earring.

Will post some reference pics soon :)

Hope you find this post helpful.

Thank you :)