The long term downward trend in hallmarking volumes finally halted in the quarter ended June 2007, with overall numbers showing a healthy increase of 8.3% on the same period in 2006.
Most of the upturn came from silver where there was a significant increase in articles hallmarked during the second quarter 1,957,015 – up 26.97% on the same period in 2006, this increase is partly due to a major new product launched in June.
The number of gold articles hallmarked across all four UK Assay Offices in the second quarter was 3,224,766 down 0.63% on the same period last year. The volume market of 9ct gold is down by 2.77% whereas 18ct continued to grow, up 5.02% on last year.
Platinum articles hallmarked in the quarter totalled 90,649, an increase of 10.35% on last year.
Courtesy ‘The Anchor’
