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Palladium Jewellery comes of Age
Author - Graham Couzens
In July of this year the UK Assay Offices commenced a service for the hallmarking of palladium jewellery.
The growth of palladium jewellery began in China some 4 years ago and has since become popular worldwide. The metal is cheaper than platinum yet produces a white gold article which has the property of being resistant to tarnishing. It is also true to say that the mark up jewellers were able to obtain was substantially more than on platinum articles especially when platinum prices rose to record highs several years ago.
The trend for white jewellery saw demand for palladium jewellery develop outside of China to the USA but now more recently to the UK. To meet this new demand the Assay Offices have introduced three hallmarking stamps, 500, 950 and 999. These equate to 50% Pd, 95.0% Pd etc.
Up to now there was no hallmarking service so palladium articles were sold without any independent regulation on the quality of the metal used in the manufacture. This will change however so that by the 1st January 2010 all palladium jewellery will be required by law to be hallmarked.
The Palladium price has been rising over the last few months following the crash of all the platinum group metals this time last year. You can see the latest and historical prices by visitng our Prices Page and opening the fixes page.
Published in : Gold
on Monday, August 24, 2009
This article has been viewed 845 times.
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