Academy · Foundation

Reading a BIS hallmark and checking a HUID

Lesson 02 of 089 min readFree · no sign-in

Hallmarked gold jewellery in India carries three compulsory marks: the BIS logo, the purity grade, and a six-character HUID. Since 1 April 2023 the six-character HUID has been part of that set — the older four-mark scheme, which included the jeweller's own mark and the assaying centre's mark, was replaced.

The HUID is unique to the single article it is inscribed on, not to the jeweller and not to the design. You can type it into the BIS CARE app and see what BIS was told about that specific piece.

This lesson covers how to read each mark, how to run that check properly, and — the part that matters most — the four things a hallmark deliberately does not certify.

The three marks

They are laser-inscribed, small, and usually placed somewhere unobtrusive: the inside of a ring shank, a clasp, the back of a pendant. On a fine chain they may be on a small tag. You will often need a loupe or your phone's camera at full zoom.

  • The BIS mark. The Bureau of Indian Standards logo. It says the piece went through a recognised assaying and hallmarking centre.
  • The purity grade. Written as karat and fineness together — 22K916, 18K750, 14K585. Both halves say the same thing twice: 22 parts in 24 is 916 parts in 1,000.
  • The HUID. Six characters, letters and numbers mixed. Allotted by the hallmarking centre, unique to that one article.

The grades you will meet are 14K585, 18K750, 20K833, 22K916 and 23K958, with 24K995 used on coins and bars rather than jewellery. BIS has amended that list more than once; if you are shown an unusual grade, check the current order on bis.gov.in rather than taking the counter's word for it.

Silver hallmarking is voluntary in India, not mandatory. Silver has its own six grades — 990, 970, 925, 900, 835 and 800. An unhallmarked silver piece is not irregular; it is simply unverified, and you should treat it that way.

Checking the HUID properly

Download the BIS CARE app, choose the HUID verification option, and enter the six characters. What comes back is what the hallmarking centre recorded: the registered jeweller, the centre that did the work, the purity, and a description of the article.

The check is not "does the app find it". Almost anything real will be found. The check is whether what the app says matches what is in your hand.

  • Does the purity in the app match the purity stamped on the piece — and match what the salesman said?
  • Does the article description match the object? A HUID registered against a ring, inscribed on a bangle, is the whole fraud in one line.
  • Does the jeweller named in the app match the shop you are standing in?

Do this before you pay, in the shop, on your own phone. It takes about a minute and it is the single highest-value minute in the entire purchase.

If the number does not check out Do not argue about it at the counter. Ask for the piece to be set aside, ask for the HUID and the invoice in writing, and take it up afterwards — with the jeweller in writing first, then with BIS if that goes nowhere. A shop that has made an honest error will fix it in a minute. A shop that has not will start explaining why the app is unreliable.

What a hallmark actually certifies — and what it does not

This is the part almost nobody is told, and it is why this lesson sits second rather than last.

A hallmark certifies the purity of the metal. That is all it certifies. It is a statement about fineness, made by a testing centre, about the article it is inscribed on. Four things sit entirely outside it:

  • Weight. Nothing in the hallmark says what the piece weighs, or how much of that weight is gold rather than stones, filler or solder. That is the scale's job, and it is your job to watch the scale.
  • Making charges. No part of the mark constrains what you are charged to have the metal shaped, or what base that charge is calculated on. Two identically hallmarked pieces can differ by thousands of rupees for reasons the mark has no opinion about.
  • Price. The hallmark does not know the rate you were quoted, whether it matched the day's rate, or what was added on top of it.
  • Fair dealing. A correctly hallmarked 22-karat necklace, honestly weighed, can still be an expensive way to buy gold. Purity being right does not make anything else right.

Each of those is a separate question with a separate defence, and the rest of this Foundation is those questions.

The sentence worth memorising A hallmark tells you what the metal is. It tells you nothing about what you paid for it.

Your rights if the purity is short

You can take any hallmarked article to a BIS-recognised assaying and hallmarking centre and have it tested, on a chargeable basis. They issue an assay report.

If the article is found to be of lower purity than marked, BIS's published consumer-protection position is that the buyer is entitled to compensation of "two times the amount of difference calculated on the basis of shortage of purity for the weight of such article sold and the testing charges."

Quoted from the BIS consumer protection page, read 24 August 2026. Rules change — confirm the current wording on bis.gov.in before relying on it.

Two practical notes. The claim runs against the jeweller, so you need the invoice, with the HUID on it — an invoice without the HUID makes the article hard to tie to the sale. And enforcement action can fall on both the jeweller and the hallmarking centre when a sample fails, which is why centres are considerably more careful than they used to be.

Old jewellery, and pieces without a HUID

Hallmarked jewellery bought under the earlier schemes stays valid. If you own a piece with the old four marks and no HUID, nothing about it has become improper, and you are not required to do anything.

What changed is what a jeweller may sell. If you are being sold a new piece today and it has no HUID, that is a question to ask out loud before anything else happens.

Some categories sit outside mandatory hallmarking altogether — jewellery made for export, pieces for international exhibitions, and certain traditional stone-set work among them, with the exempt list defined by the hallmarking order rather than by the shop. If a seller tells you an item is exempt, that is a claim you can ask them to point to.

At the counter

  • Find the marks yourself. Ask where they are; look at them with your own eyes and your phone camera.
  • Read the purity grade and check it against what you were told, before any price is discussed.
  • Enter the HUID in BIS CARE and compare the app's description to the object.
  • Check that the HUID is written on the invoice.
  • Then start on weight, making and rate — which the hallmark has nothing to say about.

What this lesson cannot tell you

It cannot tell you the piece in your hand is the piece that was hallmarked. Marks can be transferred, and the article-description check in the app is your defence against that, not a guarantee. If the value is high enough to worry about, the answer is an independent test rather than a closer look at the stamp — which is Lesson 03.

And it cannot tell you what you should pay. That is Lesson 04, and it is where most of the money actually moves.

Kept in this browser only — no account, and nothing is sent anywhere. Finish all eight and you can claim a certificate.

Educational content only. Not financial, investment or tax advice. Aurix does not buy, sell, store or broker metal, and does not quote executable prices. Regulatory details described here reflect published BIS material read on 24 August 2026 and may change.