The Laboratory at The Birmingham Assay Office recently worked with Trading Standards, testing items of jewellery which were seized as people tried to sell them for cash on the street. The un-hallmarked pieces were being sold as ‘18 carat’ and were stamped ‘18K,750’.
The traders, all of Eastern European origin were arrested and held while the pieces were tested. Analysis proved the items contained no gold at all and were approximately 70% copper and 30% zinc. The pieces were stamped with counterfeit trade mark logos, such as Nike, Addidas and Mercedes Benz.
Trading Standards officer Mr Ian Gowing said, “Quick results from The Birmingham Assay Office allowed us to stop this illegal trade and protect the consumer from being cheated. The support of this Laboratory team is very much appreciated.”
Chief Executive and Assay Master Michael Allchin said: “We were delighted to assist Trading Standards and to help protect members of the public from these unscrupulous traders.”
Courtesy The Anchor
Editor’s Note:
As a strange coincidence, my son-in-law who lives in Cornwall asked me recently if I knew anything about counterfeit jewellery as there was lots of it on sale down there from car boots, markets etc (he is a ‘Police Community Officer) – also my grand daughter is a journalist on a Cornish newspaper, so the Jewellery Quarter was able to help the Cornish police with this information.
Apparently no-one has tried to sell this rubbish in the Jewellery Quarter but when you go away on holiday, do not be tempted by similar junk, even when on sale inside the hotel itself! Deep inside the Tunisian markets there is usually a small area where ‘real’ jewellery is sold, but it is never ‘cheap’ and if you are female and on your own, you will not be allowed to enter the shop!
