Quarterly Hallmarking Figures / October to December 08

ECONOMIC CLIMATE HITS HALLMARKING FIGURES

The downturn in the number of articles hallmarked in the four UK Assay Offices continued in the last Quarter of 2008, accelerated by unpredictable precious metal prices and growing economic uncertainty.

In the last Quarter Gold articles were down a massive 42%, Silver 18% and Platinum 20%, representing a reduction of nearly 3 million articles in the period. This left total articles hallmarked during 2008 a 19 million, 6.4 million, (25%) down on last year and the lowest annual total since 1992.

After five years of figures above 30m from 2000 to 2004 this is an extraordinary drop most of which is accounted for by gold, and particularly 9ct gold, while silver has grown its market share and is still performing relatively strongly.

The individual figures are as follows: