Worldwide, people continue to adorn themselves with the shiny metal – gold. Wherever precious pieces are displayed for sale, hard pure gold jewellery continues to attract consumers with their stylish designs, lighter weights and significantly higher value when compared to other consumer products.
Locally, gold miners continue to yield good returns on their investments while making the precious commodity available to Goldsmiths and Jewellers who make the finest pieces for sale to consumers. The Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) has been promoting the standard for gold, its certification programme and testing services offered to increase consumer confidence in the quality of gold and gold jewellery offered for sale.
The GNBS, through the Technical Committee – Jewellery, in 2022 further revised the National Standard for Gold Articles (Specification for Gold Articles) which offers requirements crucial for the certification of gold jewellery sold to consumers. The standard specifies requirements for the manufacturing, alloying and testing of gold articles of 23, 22, 20, 18, 15, 14, 12, 10 and 9 karat gold.
This National Standard, which is also a CARICOM Standard, outlines requirements for gold, alloying metals, solder, settings, base metal parts, alloyed gold, manufacture, sampling, tolerance and marking. Adherence to these requirements is crucial if jewellers are to produce gold articles to the specific karat content desired by consumers. Conformance also prevents fraud and deception arising from misleading labels as the standard gives guidance to manufacturers and helps them to provide adequate labelling information.
The GNBS welcomes more goldsmiths and jewellery establishments to join its Product Certification Scheme. Under the scheme, third party assurance is given to these businesses vouching that items manufactured and offered for sale were tested and conform to quality and other requirements. Consumers can recognise certified jewellery by the National Standards Mark which is usually affixed to these items.
Certification not only benefits consumers, but it also allows goldsmiths and jewellers to garner some worthwhile benefits including permission to use the National Standards Mark on gold articles as a marketing tool. Certification also provides a competitive edge on the local and overseas markets and ensures consistency in the manufacturing process through the monitoring and implementation of quality control procedures, reducing the risk of producing substandard products. Ultimately, this creates a positive impact on the Tourism and Manufacturing sectors.
Finally, the GNBS provides testing of gold articles to determine the karat content or purity. This affordable service is available to manufacturers trying to determine the purity of gold they are putting into the process. GNBS gold testing service is also accessible to consumers who are desirous of determining the quality of gold jewellery they have acquired.
The GNBS is encouraging more goldsmiths and jewellers to acquire the National Standard and to participate in its Product Certification Scheme, which is voluntary and affordable. By far, when it comes to gold, it is better to be assured of its quality, than to be doubtful.
For further information, please contact the GNBS on telephone numbers: 219-0065 or 219-0066 or visit the GNBS website: www.gnbsgy.org
