A hallmark is the government's stamp on a piece of gold. It says the gold is as pure as the seller claims. A real one carries a six-character code. In April 2025, a LocalCircles survey asked people who had bought gold jewellery in the past year how long the code on it was. It got 29,853 answers:
This was an online survey of the platform's own members, so read it as a strong signal, not a census. The signal is clear enough. Only 18% could point to the code that makes a hallmark checkable. The other 82% did not know the one thing a real hallmark must have.
When you cannot check the gold yourself, you do the only thing left. You trust the jeweller. That is the gap where buyers get hurt, and it takes one minute to close.
The stamp comes from the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the government body that sets quality standards. Since July 2021, BIS says a hallmark has three marks:
If one of the three is missing, it is not a complete hallmark. The marks are tiny. Ask the jeweller to show you all three under a magnifying glass.
Two things to know. Hallmarking is compulsory in 380 districts as of March 2026, not in every district. And LocalCircles notes that some styles, such as Kundan, Polki and Jadau, do not need one. For any other gold piece, no hallmark means you have no way to check its purity. Choose one that has it.
You do not have to take the stamp on trust either. BIS has a free app called BIS Care. Open it, choose "Verify HUID", and type the six-character code from the piece. BIS says this confirms the hallmark is authentic, and you can do it before you buy. If the app cannot find the code, or shows a different purity from the one stamped on the piece, do not buy it.
The same BIS page gives you a right most buyers have never heard of. If hallmarked jewellery turns out to be less pure than its mark, the buyer is entitled to twice the difference in value, plus the testing charges. BIS also says the bill must carry the hallmark details if you ever need to complain, so ask for one that does.
Only 18% of buyers surveyed said their jewellery carried the six-character code. Without that code, a hallmark cannot be checked.
The same survey asked buyers a second question. Was the gold jewellery you bought in the last 12 months hallmarked? Of 16,784 people, 65% said yes. 11% said no. 24% could not say.
So about one buyer in three could not confirm it. The 2024 survey found the same thing: 65% said yes, and the rest said no or could not say. A buyer who cannot read the stamp has to rely on the person selling it.
A hallmark covers purity. It does not cover price. The making charge, which is the labour cost of turning gold into jewellery, is set by each shop. In a case reported in 2018, a customer was promised 3–5% and billed 23.5%, and a consumer court in Bangalore ordered the jeweller to compensate her. The full story and the maths are in Gold Making Charges in India: What They Really Cost You.
Here the jeweller tests your gold and then tells you what it is worth. The value should be simple: weight, times purity, times the day's rate. After that, the lender IIFL Finance puts the usual refining or melting charge at 1 to 3%. The test should happen in front of you. A hallmark on your old piece helps, because the purity is already certified.
In a gold savings scheme you pay every month and collect gold at the end. You pay first. That is the risk. A hallmark cannot help you, because there is no gold in your hand yet.
In November 2017, The News Minute reported that the Chennai jeweller Nathella Sampathu Chetty had admitted to police that it owed ₹75 crore to more than 21,000 people who had paid into its schemes. One customer told its reporters he had paid in about ₹1.3 lakh over three years. The company had already closed seven shops.
A legal explainer on LiveLaw notes that jewellers keep these schemes within 11 to 12 months, because of company deposit rules. A scheme that asks you to keep paying for longer than a year is a reason to ask questions.
| Situation | What you hand over | What can go wrong | What you can check |
| Buying jewellery | Money | Purity lower than claimed. A making charge nobody explained. | The three marks. The code on BIS Care. A bill with each charge on its own line. |
| Exchanging old gold | Your gold | Purity or weight marked down. Large deductions. | The test, done in front of you. Every deduction in writing. 1 to 3% for refining is typical. |
| Savings scheme | Money, months in advance | The shop fails before you collect. | The length of the scheme. A receipt for every payment. |
The check gets weaker as you go down the table. When you buy, the government's stamp does the work. In a scheme, nothing does it for you.
Six steps. The first two take a minute.
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