Quarterly Hallmarking Figures / July to September 2009

White Metal is Here to Stay

Age old traditions are being overturned - a change driven principally by high gold prices and fashion trends. Volumes of 9ct gold – the long serving old faithful of every woman’s jewellery box – have been in drastic decline, from nearly 24 million articles hallmarked in 2001 (70% of all items hallmarked) to only 8 million in 2008.

This year so far 5.8 million silver items have been marked, as opposed to only 4.4 million 9ct gold, a full scale reversal. Add to this a growing demand for 9ct and 18ct “white gold” alloys, Platinum which contributes around 300,000 units per year, and the new Palladium standard – 27,000 articles marked in the first ten weeks – and it is clear that white metal is here to stay.

However, retailers continue to buy stock cautiously, despite overall retail jewellery sales value holding up well, and silver cannot compensate for the drastic decline in 9ct gold volumes, down this quarter alone by over 1 million articles (-48%) against last year while silver was up by 33,000 units, 1.5%. Overall hallmarking volumes for the third quarter were down by 20% on last year.

Work dealt with by the Assay Offices of Great Britain, for the Quarter
July - September 2009