Glossary
Words you'll hear at the jeweller's counter, on bills, and in the bank locker room, including the Indian terms you'll see on bills from India.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Assaying | Testing metal to find its exact purity. Hallmarking centres use fire assay. |
| Auction notice | Notice from a lender that pledged gold will be sold if a gold loan isn't repaid. |
| BIS | Bureau of Indian Standards, the body that runs hallmarking in India. See BIS Hallmark & HUID. |
| BIS CARE | The official BIS app, used to verify a HUID and file complaints. |
| Bullion | Gold or silver in bulk form, such as coins, bars and biscuits, rather than jewellery. |
| Carat (ct) | Unit of weight for gemstones: 1 ct = 0.2 g. Not the same as karat. |
| CBDT | Central Board of Direct Taxes, which issues instructions to income-tax officers. See How Much Gold Can You Keep? |
| Cubic zirconia (CZ) | An inexpensive synthetic stone that looks like diamond. Very common in everyday gold jewellery. |
| Fineness | Purity in parts per thousand, e.g. 916 = 91.6% pure. |
| Gift deed | A written document recording a gift. It's the best proof for gifted gold. |
| Gold loan | A loan secured by pledging gold with a bank, NBFC or pawnbroker. |
| Gross weight | Total weight of a piece, including stones. |
| GSTIN | A business's 15-character GST registration number, printed on every tax invoice. |
| Hallmark | Official mark showing the metal was independently tested for purity. |
| HSN 7113 | The tax classification code for jewellery of precious metal. |
| HUID | Hallmark Unique ID, a 6-character code unique to each hallmarked piece. |
| Jadau | Traditional technique of setting stones into gold without prongs, by pressing them into the metal. |
| Karat (K) | Purity of gold in parts of 24, e.g. 22K = 22/24 gold. See Karat & Purity. |
| KDM | Old term for jewellery joined with cadmium solder. It says nothing about purity today. |
| Kundan | Stones set using thin strips of highly refined gold foil, typically in bridal jewellery. |
| Locker | A safe deposit locker at a bank. The bank doesn't keep a list of what's inside, so your own register is the only record. |
| Making charges | The jeweller's charge for the work, per gram, as a percentage, or fixed. |
| Meenakari | Coloured enamel work on gold, often on the back of kundan pieces. |
| NBFC | Non-banking financial company. Many gold-loan lenders are NBFCs. |
| Net weight | Weight of the gold alone, excluding stones. It's the weight you pay the gold rate on. |
| Old gold exchange | Trading in old jewellery as credit towards a new piece. |
| Panchaloha | Traditional alloy of five metals, used for idols and ritual objects. |
| Pavan | South Indian name for 8 g of gold, the weight of a sovereign. |
| Pledge | Handing gold to a lender as security for a loan. |
| Polki | Uncut, unpolished diamonds, traditionally set in kundan or jadau work. |
| Rate of the day | A jeweller's price per gram for a given purity on a given day. |
| Safe harbor | Tijori's name for the CBDT amounts of jewellery not seized during a search: 500 g, 250 g and 100 g. |
| Sovereign | Originally a British gold coin. In Indian trade, a unit of 8 g of 22K gold. |
| Sterling silver | Silver of 925 fineness (92.5% pure). |
| Stone weight | Weight of the stones in a piece, taken off gross weight to give net weight. |
| Temple jewellery | South Indian style with motifs of deities and temples, often in antique finish. |
| Tola | Traditional unit, now taken as 11.6638 g. Still used in the Gulf and north India. |
| Touchstone | Traditional purity test: the piece is rubbed on a dark stone and the streak compared with test needles. |
| VA / wastage | "Value addition", another name for making charges, common in South India. |
| XRF | X-ray fluorescence, a quick purity test that doesn't damage the piece ("karat meter"). |