GoldSmart Network ™

The word “hallmark” is used generically to refer to the karat stamp and makers trademark on all gold jewellery, but the term in fact has a very specific and very old meaning.  Here is a quote from the web site of The Goldsmiths’ Company of London England where the term “hallmark” originated: “The Assay Office [...]

The short answer is: “You can’t. Only a gemologist equipped with some very expensive equipment can know with certainty” Having said that, there are some little things to know, and scratching a piece of glass isn’t one of them! It’s much easier for anyone, even a gemologist, to certify the authenticity of a diamond if [...]

There has been a lot of social and political pressure for fair trade products including coffee, chocolate and diamonds.  I think we all feel a responsibility to support products that have been placed into the market place using safe and ethical practices and without abuse of child labour laws.  The fact is that mined gold [...]

The simple answer is “Yes, of course” but there are some things to be aware of: Coloured stones in general have little to no recovery value.  If you would like them because you think you might use them to make another piece of jewellery, we are happy to remove them, but you need to be [...]

This question comes up frequently, at parties and at online Q&A sites.  The answer is simple: absolutely not.  Karat for karat white gold and yellow gold have exactly the same gold content and therefore exactly the same value. To understand fully it is useful to know what makes white gold white.  To begin, there is [...]

The first confusion with this term is that it sounds like “karat” and in some places the spelling is even used interchangeably!  Carat it is a unit of weight used to measure how much a diamond weighs.  Karat is a measure of purity that applies to gold.  There is a separate article on Karat Gold. [...]

In European countries and in many other places, most jewellery manufacturers use a decimal system to express the purity of a piece of karat gold jewellery.  In North America and Britain, they mostly use the karat system.  Both systems represent the purity of the gold alloy used in making the jewellery.  The “karat mark” expresses [...]