Precious metals hallmarking

The legal marking of precious metals allows the manufacturers, importers and exporters of finished jewelry to guarantee the value and quality of their product before marketing. Precious metal marking is strictly regulated and must be conducted in a laboratory recognized by the authorities of each country.

Solution

Applus+ Laboratories is an authorized precious metal hallmarking laboratory with the "C-1" mark for these markets: Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Latvia, Greece, Iceland, Luxembourg and Northern Ireland*.

Our service for gold, silver and platinum products includes:

• Selection of the representative sample, based on the amount of merchandise
• Chemical analysis
• Marking with the C-1 mark
• Submission of detailed report

In Applus+ Laboratories, we have our own precious metals laboratory, with the latest equipment, and we are accredited by ENAC for the analysis of precious metals according to the criteria established in standard UNE-EN/IEC 17025. (check our Accreditations area for more information)

• Meet the legal requirements for market access
• Give the consumer a guarantee of the precious metal´s purity, through tests conducted by an impartial, independent third party
• Evaluate and monitor the quality of articles manufactured or semi-manufactured by external suppliers
• Detect fraud possible in merchandise supplied by different suppliers

*Until January 2021, our lab was also authorized for the rest of the United Kingdom. Due to Brexit, from 1 January 2021, UK obligations to recognise equivalent EU hallmarks ended in Great Britain. For the Northern Ireland market EU hallmarks will continue to be recognised. Any product already on the market before 1 January 2021 will continue to be legal. More info