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Hallmark Gold, KDM Gold, BIS 916 Gold: Which Is Better?

Shall I go with the hallmark gold or KDM gold? Will the BIS 916 gold suit my taste? If you have these kinds of queries, you have landed in the right place.

Gold is a great means to elevate your status and fortune in society. From gifting a gold bracelet to a newborn to adorning a bride with gold, it signifies prosperity and luck. Besides, it’s one of the top investments across the globe in forms like biscuits, jewelry, coins, etc. 

However, one concern everyone has regarding gold is its purity and quality assurance. There are several ways of making gold jewelry, but limited ways to assure the buyers of its quality. But thanks to the hallmarking system, the buyers are getting fully satisfied with their purchases. This article is about the top-rated hallmarking systems i.e. hallmark gold, KDM gold, and BIS 916 gold. So, let’s know a bit more about these in detail.

What do you mean by:

KDM Gold

Let’s discuss the process of making gold jewelry. Gold jewelry is shaped by joining the ends of the yellow metal through soldering, a process that involves a material called solder being melted in between the joints to connect them. This soldering metal used to have a lower melting point than the gold itself so that only the soldering metal melts without affecting the gold in this process. 

For this, a combination of gold and copper was used in the ratio of 60:40 as it was both firm and easy to use. However, since this solder has a purity of merely 60%, it used to cause the purity level of the gold jewelry to fall below 22 carats. To overcome this, cadmium came to be used instead of copper as it could be mixed in a small amount i.e. 8% with 92% gold.

This combination of solder (called cadmium-soldered gold or KDM gold), with a purity of over 92%, raised the purity of the overall gold jewelry above 92%. But there’s one downside of this. As cadmium is known to have lots of health hazards while working with it and wearing its jewelry, BIS banned its usage and replaced it with the solder of zinc and other metals. 

BIS 916 Gold

Gold’s quality is assured on the basis of its purity levels which are 24 carats, 23 carats, 22 carats, 18 carats, 14 carats, 10 carats, and so on. Among these, the 22 carats hallmarked gold is termed as BIS 916 gold i.e. 91.6 grams of pure gold per every 100 grams of alloy. Similarly, 23 carats gold is called BIS 958 gold, and 18 carats is called BIS 750 gold. 

However, the majority of the buyers still prefer BIS 916 gold over others as it’s more durable than 24 carats and has a higher purity level than 14k & 18k. 

Hallmark Gold

Hallmarked gold is nothing but a gold bestowed with a quality assurance certification by BIS after properly evaluating it and ensuring that it meets the international as well as national purity standards. You can check whether your gold is hallmarked or not by looking for the details like the BIS logo, retailer’s logo, the logo of the assaying center, purity level, and year of certification engraved over it. 

In the US, there isn’t a sole hallmarking system but multiple assaying centers across the states and cities. Here:

10-carat gold is the lowest carat gold having 41.7% of pure gold among the other metals. Similarly, 14 carats gold, one of the most popular gold, consists of 58.5% of pure gold, 18 carats gold consists of 75% of pure gold, and 24 carats gold is the purest yet delicate gold you can find in the US made up of 99.9% of pure gold.

So, these are the differences between the three types of gold available. Out of these, KDM gold is banned and hallmarked gold is more prominent than the BIS 916 gold.

FAQs

What is a hallmark of the gold?

A hallmark is an official mark/series of marks stamped on a precious metal like gold or its article to signify the contents of the main metal i.e. gold. It safeguards the buyer from getting duped when buying or selling the item. The hallmark contains the following information: the BIS logo, retailer’s logo, purity (916, 875, etc.), year of certification, and assaying center’s logo.

How many types of hallmarks are present in gold?

You’re more likely to find a hallmarked yellow metal in the purities of 958 i.e.23 carats, 916 i.e. 22 carats, 875 i.e. 21 carats, and 750 i.e. 18 carats.

What does KDM gold stand for?

KDM stands for cadmium. When gold jewelry is crafted from pure gold, it’s finish is governed by the quality of its soldering. The conventional soldering process is lengthy, tough, and expensive (due to the use of expensive soldering materials). Hence, everyone started using an economical solder i.e. cadmium. So, if KDM gold is mentioned somewhere, it means that cadmium has been used as the soldering metal.

What do you mean by BIS 916 gold?

916 gold is nothing but 22k gold where 916 denotes the purity of gold in the article which is 91.6 grams of pure gold in 100 grams of the alloy.

How is hallmark gold different from BIS 916 gold?

In the hallmark gold, the hallmark stamps the assurance that the gold you have bought meets the International quality standards and norms. While BIS 916 gold simply means that in your article, there is 91.6 grams of pure gold in 100 grams of alloy.

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