UK Hallmarking Figures and Trends

The UK Hallmarking figures are one of the most reliable indicators as to trends in the trade.  Figures shown demonstrate overall trends during the last five years and also trends for gold, silver and platinum individually.


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HALLMARKING FIGURES IN DECLINE

A combination of factors including a drop in consumer spend, high volatile metal prices and current fashion trends resulted in a major decline in hallmarking numbers for the quarter. fromApril to June 2008, compared with the previous year.

Overall 4.16 million articles were hallmarked by the four UK Assay offices, 21% less than in 2007, an even greater drop than in the first quarter when the numbers were down by 16%. The hardest hit sector continues to be gold which was down 29% with 9ct showing a decline of 830,000 articles, (32%) and even silver, which has been growing strongly was down by 7.4%.

The individual figures are as follows: