This happened today so we thought we will write a post. A customer(who visited after reading our blog) asked us a rather pointed question. He was wondering: Why cant a jeweller fake all the 5 symbols of hallmarking. I think he was actually questioning the weak regulation in our country:)

And he had a point.

Fortunately you can identify a 'real' hallmark jeweller even without walking into the jeweller's store.

If you look at that Hallmarking process: In order to sport the Hallmarking Store (accompanied with the blue triangle) A jeweller has to get the Hallmarking license through BIS. Once approved you can start advertising yourself as a Hallmark jeweller( of course you need to keep hallmarked jewellery too). This way the governing body BIS maintains a database of all the approved jewellers throughout india.

That database is available in the public domain at https://www.bis.org.in. On the homepage look for 'Locate Hallmark Jewelers in your city' link and the rest is fairly easy. Once you select your appropriate state it will spew a PDF of all the active licensees. This way you can verify that the jeweller is a True hallmark jeweller or not.

The tough part is the link may not always work. I have written to the IT dept of BIS but to no avail. I have a copy of all the indian hallmark jewellers. We go by Kathana Jewels Pvt. Ltd. and the address is the same.

You canview/downloadthe file here (thank you Google docs!!!).