Dhanteras: Things to remember while buying gold this Diwali

Be it any occasion, Indians love to dress up with a touch of gold jewellery. Dhanteras is considered as most auspicious day for Indians to purchase jewellery.

Representational Image. Photo: Pixabay

The five-day Diwali festival hass begun with Dhanteras – also known as Dhanatrayodashi or Dhanvantari Trayodashi, on October 17, 2017.

On this day, jewellers usually see massive rise in demand for yellow metal every year either in the form of jewellery or coins. Considering this, here's a list of things that you need to remember while purchasing the yellow metal.

Know the Purity of Gold:

Purity of gold is denoted in karats – with 24 karat gold being 99.9% pure and 22 karat gold being 92% pure.

Each karat of gold is equivalent to 4.2% pure gold, which means that 14 and 18 karat contains only 58.33% and 75% pure gold, respectively.

24 karat gold is not suited to make jewellery, which is why jewellers use either 14, 18 or 22 karat gold.

Making charges:

Current gold rates usually include making charges - so it is important to insist on fixed making charges otherwise one can be fooled by jewellers in paying higher making charges.

Gold jewellery prices can be calculated by Gold price per gm)* (Weight in gm) + (Making charges)*(Weight in gm) + GST.

Man-made versus Machine made ornaments:

One should discuss the making charges with the jewellers and as these charges on machine made artefacts are lower than charges on man-made artefacts - making them cheaper.
Check the weight:

In India, most jewellery are sold by weight. Heaviers pieces usually cost more.

Precious stones like diamond and emerald are often added to gold jewellery, making them heavier in the process.

Buy back:

In case if you want to exchange your old jeweller with a new one, there are buyback options available in many jewellery shops

While designs and trends can change, the value of gold remains same and discussing buy backs during a purchase could benefit one.

Jewellery store:

There are million of jewellery stores in India.

Purchasing gold jewellery from small stores could be a risk as they might pass of impure gold as pure gold or could sell stolen gold artefacts.

Thus, buying gold from a reputed jeweller erases the amount of risk as it comes with guarantee.

Mark of Bureau of Indian Standards:

Buy gold which are hallmarked by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

The BIS Hallmarking Scheme has been aligned with International criteria on hallmarking (Vienna Convention 1972). As per this scheme, licence is granted to the jewellers by BIS under Hallmarking Scheme.

To check the jewellery stores which are hallmarked by BIS. Click Here

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