Israeli Institute Offering Silver Quality Symbol
July 08, 04 The Israel Standards Institute has unveiled a new hallmark symbol for silver jewelry aimed at reassuring customers that the jewelry they are considering buying is of a high standard. The symbol is in the shape of a pomegranate and will appear on the jewelry next to a number indicating the purity of the silver. That will enable customers to know the jewelry is real and not counterfeit. It also provides a reassurance that the jewelry does not contain materials likely to spark off allergies, such as nickel. Other silver articles, such as pieces of Judaica, can also be checked and stamped with the symbol. In related news, Israel is joining an international agreement for the hallmarking of gold jewelry and at a later stage it will also supply quality symbols for silver and platinum, the country’s Standards Institute said.
The institute will stamp jewelry with internationally accepted purity marks for the precious metals.
Currently, 12 European countries have signed up to the agreement that aims to ease trade in precious metals.
These include Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Britain, Holland and Spain. Other countries have also expressed an interest in joining up to the convention.
Each country agrees under the treaty to allow the import of precious metals with the Common Control Mark without checking the metals and stamping them with their own marks as happened in the past.
Last year, the countries marked more than 24 million pieces of jewelry with the purity symbols.
The marks refer to 9, 14 and 18 karat gold, a spokeswoman for the institute said.