The Jewellers Association of Uttaranchal is all set to launch a commemorative coin on the eve of Dhanteras as well as the foundation day of Uttarakhand.
“The purpose of launching such a coin is to stop the customers from being deceived by some unlicensed jewellers, who fleece them by selling steel or metal coins plated with gold and silver polish. Our effort is to make the consumers aware and give them genuine products for the price they pay,” said Bipin Berry, president of Jewellers Association of Uttaranchal.
The coin will be launched on the morning of November 5. The coin is hallmarked and this year only, silver ones would be launched. The gold ones are being kept for the next year. Association might sell gold and silver idols too in future.
“The association has around 500 prominent jewelers as its members. The coins are available in several weights like 5g, 10g, 20g, 50g and 100 g. The average cost would be `45 per gram. The facility of replacement is there because it is a hallmarked product. The coins are available mainly from the famous shops that are related to the association and not from post offices and banks,” informed Bipin.
Naveen, store manager of Kamal jewelers at Astley Hall, said, “The problem with the customers is that they buy gold from banks where they have to pay 15 per cent extra premium. They don’t understand the simple fact that the facility of replacement of any gold commodity is available only with the jewelry shops and not with banks. They should be aware too that the premium that they pay there is nothing but an extra cost.”
“As Dhanteras is coming, the market will be flooded with customers buying gold and metals. I would thus advise them to make sure that the items are genuine sans polish. Most of the jewelers indulge in such deception and due to ignorance the customers are deceived,” said Rachit, manager of Bombay Jewelers located on Rajpur Road.
“Also there are five things which the buyers should keep in mind while they look for hallmark. Hallmark is not just the triangle one should look for. It’s a mixture of five things and every ornament has it. It is engraved even on the thing which is as tiny as a nose pin,” said Bipin, who is also the patron to Saraffa Mandal, Dehradun.
He further explained that the customer should check for the authentic hallmark logo which is in the form of a triangle followed by purity stamp which is ‘999’ which is then followed by logo of the lab. “logo of the lab may vary. This is then followed by the year of manufacturing denominated by an alphabet. ‘T’ is for 2015 while ‘U’ for 2016. The last thing which completes the hallmark criteria is registered trademark of the shop. It can be initials of the shop owner or the name of the shop even,” he added.
Selling a hallmarked product without having a license is also an offence, he further said.