Tip: How to identify an old gold/diamond jewellery piece

This is only possible with a hallmarked jewellery item. You can identify whether a peice of jewellery lying in front of you is old or new. Yuo can precisely tell how old a jewellery piece is.


Hallmark is an assurance of the quality of a precious metal like gold and silver jewellery in India. There are five symbols which are laser engraved on any hallmarked jewellery . In the picture below you will notice the 5 symbols namely the Hallmark symbol, the purity of gold which is 916 ( i.e. 22k), the assay centre's logo, the jeweller's logo and the year of hallmarking ie. J.


This last peice of information is what reveals the age of the jewellery in the picture. The hallmarking process was started in year 2000 so the corresponding symbol is A. The table below illustrates the corresponsing hallmark symbol for the subsequent years.

'A'	Year 2000	'E'	Year 2004
'B'	Year 2001	'F'	Year 2005
'C'	Year 2002	'G'	Year 2006
'D'	Year 2003	'H'	Year 2007

So now my dear friends you knwo the jewellery item in the picture above is hallmarked in the year 2009. So next time you see a hallmarked item with a F you know it was manufactured way back in 2005.

Kundans still rule.

Aishwarya wore them for her wedding in 2007, Rakhi Sawant donned it for her Swayamvar a few months back, and Shilpa Shetty swore by them for her wedding.

Kundans/Polki diamonds are here to stay and are still the hot favorite flavor for the wedding jewellery. While Kundan have been here for many years, but post Jodha Akbar the patterns have changed dramatically.

From smaller uncut diamonds set in gold casts symetrically with traditional ruby and emerald hangings along the border of the necklace they have now moved to big bold unsymmetric polki stones with a few large ruby or emeralds. Ofcourse as the polki grow bigger so does the price tag, but for the fashionistas with deep pocket it seldom matters.

So if you are wondering which one to wear for your wedding : uncut diamonds (polki) or a diamond set, play it safe and go with polkis. You can never go wrong with them.



Picture courtsey: http://www.samaylive.com/gallery/668611/27504.html