Hallmark Gold and KDM Gold - What is the difference?

Do you look for purity when you purchase the gold coins, bars or jewelry? If so, ensure that you buy the precious metals like gold hallmarked by the Bureau of Indian Standards but what is hallmark and how does it work? Here is all you need to know about hallmarking of gold and the difference between Hallmark Gold and KDM Gold. Gold can be purified mainly in two ways.

By heating with high temperature.
With chemical exposure.

Hallmark Gold vs KDM Gold

Every one wants to buy pure gold. There are many questions and doubts for people who wants buy pure gold. Some of the commonly asked questions are:

What is KDM Mark or KDM 916 Mark?
What is Hallmark or Hallmark 916?

What is KDM mark?

KDM means that the ornament was soldered with Cadmium. It has a low melting point (i.e.,321 degrees Celsius). Cadmium contains toxic fumes,which is bad for human skin. Many countries have banned its use. Its effects on the wearer is unknown. It is advisable to use ornaments that are soldered by other metals.

916 KDM: Standard gold is 24 carat (99.9% pure). 22 carat gold is called 916 KDM gold (In which Cadmium is soldered) It is 91.6% pure gold.

What is Hallmark Gold?

Hallmark has been acting as a safeguard to purchasers of gold and gold articles for centuries in various countries. In simple terms, Hallmark is a purity certification of gold articles in accordance with Indian Standard specifications. Gold articles are evaluated and tested at an official Assaying and Hallmarking Centre and then certified that the metal used conforms to the national and international standard of fineness and purity.

Hallmark is a purity certification of gold ornaments in accordance with Indian standard specifications. The bureau of Indian standards is involved in the development of technical standards, certification and quality. As per the BIS Hallmarking Scheme, licence is granted to the jewelers by BIS under product certification scheme. The certified jewelers can get their jewellery hallmarked from any of the BIS recognized assaying and Hallmarking center.

What does Hallmark consists of?

Hallmark consists of the 5 components specified below.

BIS Mark
Fineness Number (corresponding to caratage)
Assaying and Hallmarking Centre Mark
Jeweller's Mark
Year of marking 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).

This is done either by punching or laser marking machine. The principle objective of assaying and hallmarking is to protect a consumer against victimization of irregular gold quality. Besides consumer satisfaction, hallmarking helps to create an export competitiveness of gold jewellery thus provide strong impetus for gold jewellery exports.

You may also be interested in reading about some interesting facts about gold.