What 916 means on your jewellery, and how to read the other marks

There is usually a tiny stamp somewhere on a piece of gold jewellery — inside a ring, on a chain clasp, on the flat inner edge of a bangle. Most people have never read theirs. It is worth ten minutes with a phone camera, because those marks tell you roughly what you own before anyone else gets to tell you.

They also have limits, and the limits matter as much as the marks.

916 means 91.6% gold

The number stamped on Indian gold jewellery is the fineness: the proportion of the piece that is actually gold, written as parts per thousand.

• 999 — 99.9% gold, 24 karat. Coins and bars, almost never jewellery
• 916 — 91.6% gold, 22 karat. The standard for Indian gold jewellery
• 750 — 75.0% gold, 18 karat. Lighter pieces and stone-set designs
• 585 — 58.5% gold, 14 karat. Often imported or fashion jewellery
• 375 — 37.5% gold, 9 karat. Rare in India, common in the UK

So 916 and 22k are the same statement written two ways. If you see either, the piece is claimed to be about 91.6% gold and about 8.4% other metals — usually copper, silver and zinc, which are what give gold its strength and its colour.

Karat is not carat. Karat, with a k, is gold purity out of 24. Carat, with a c, is the weight of a gemstone. They are unrelated and the spelling is the only thing separating them.

What the BIS hallmark is

A hallmark is not the same as a purity stamp. Anyone can stamp a number on metal. A hallmark is a mark applied at an assaying and hallmarking centre after the piece has been tested independently.

Indian hallmarking is run by the Bureau of Indian Standards. Since the current scheme, a hallmarked piece carries three things:

1. The BIS mark — a small triangular logo
2. The purity grade, such as 22K916
3. A six-digit alphanumeric HUID, unique to that piece

The HUID is the newer part. It identifies the individual item rather than the batch, and it can be looked up.

What a hallmark does and does not tell you

A hallmark is good evidence that the piece was tested by somebody other than the person who sold it to you. That is genuinely useful.

What it does not do is settle the question at resale, for three reasons.

It describes the piece as made, not as it is now. Repairs, added solder, replaced clasps and re-sizing all introduce metal that was never assayed. A ring made in 22k and resized twice is not uniformly 22k any more.

Not everything is marked. Older jewellery predates the scheme entirely. Plenty of perfectly good gold from a family's collection has no stamp at all, and that says nothing bad about it.

Marks can be wrong. A stamp is a claim. Most claims are honest; some are not, and a stamp is easy to apply to metal that does not deserve it.

This is why any serious buyer tests the piece rather than reading the stamp and paying on it. The karatmeter reading is the number your payout is calculated from, whether the stamp agrees with it or not. Where they disagree, we show you both.

Finding the marks on your own jewellery

They are small, so use your phone. Photograph the area and zoom in on the photo — that is easier than a magnifying glass and you end up with something you can send us.

• Rings — inside the band, opposite the stone
• Chains and necklaces — on the clasp, or on a small flat tag beside it
• Bangles and kadas — the inner surface, often near a join
• Earrings — on the post or the back of the fitting

If you find nothing, that is common and it is not a problem. It only means the piece has to be tested, which was going to happen anyway.

What none of the marks can tell you

The mark tells you purity. It says nothing about the two other numbers that decide what you are paid.

Weight of gold. A bangle filled with lac, a necklace strung on thread, a kundan set with stones — the total weight in your hand includes material that is not gold and is not paid for at the gold rate.

The day's rate. Purity times weight is only meaningful once it is multiplied by a per-gram figure, and that moves daily.

So the honest use of a hallmark is as a starting point. It lets you walk into a shop with an idea of what you are holding, and it makes an offer that is wildly out of line obvious straight away. It is not a substitute for watching the test.

A quick self-check before you sell

1. Find and photograph any mark on each piece
2. Note what it says: 916, 750, 22K, a BIS triangle, a six-digit code, or nothing
3. Weigh the pieces on any scale you have, for a rough total

You now know more about your own jewellery than most people who walk into a gold shop. When the karatmeter reading and the counter scale are shown to you, you can see whether they line up with the marks and the weight you noted at home — and the buying rate applied to them is told to you before anything is decided.

How the karatmeter reading is taken ·

Questions people ask

Is 916 gold the same as 22 karat? Yes. 916 means 91.6 percent gold, which is 22 karat. The number is a purity claim stamped by the maker, and a buyer still measures the piece rather than trusting the stamp.

Does a BIS hallmark guarantee the purity? It shows the piece was certified when it was made. It does not stop a buyer from testing, because stamps can be worn, transferred or wrong, and the karatmeter reading is what the price is based on.

What if my jewellery has no marks at all? Older and handmade pieces often have none. It changes nothing at our Noida Extension counter: the karatmeter reads the metal, not the stamp. Bring it in or call 9217742656.

Why the published rate is not your payout