Economy
Hallmarking slumps 11.8% in July
The total number of hallmarked items dropped 11.8% in July, a decrease of 92,333 pieces when compared with the same month last year.
New figures from all four of the UK’s assay offices, and compiled by the Birmingham Assay Office, which found the total number of hallmarked items in July was 687,550 compared with 779,881 during the same month last year.
Platinum and palladium enjoyed 7% and 35.1% increases respectively, but the much larger categories of gold and silver saw declines of 14.3% and 11.4% respectively.
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The number of hallmarked gold pieces fell from 384,319 last year to 329,192, with the number of 9-carat articles falling from 261,893 in July 2015 to 227,239 last month – a decline of 13.2%.
| Month | Month | Variance | % | |||
| Jul-15 | Jul-16 | |||||
| Gold | ||||||
| 999 | 24 | 75 | 51 | 212.5 | ||
| 990 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 100.0 | ||
| 916 | 44,106 | 32,149 | -11,957 | -27.1 | ||
| 750 | 71,081 | 63,196 | -7,885 | -11.1 | ||
| 585 | 7,215 | 6,532 | -683 | -9.5 | ||
| 375 | 261,893 | 227,239 | -34,654 | -13.2 | ||
| 384,319 | 329,192 | -55,127 | -14.3 | |||
| Silver | ||||||
| 999 | 2,784 | 1,885 | -899 | -32.3 | ||
| 958 | 902 | 646 | -256 | -28.4 | ||
| 925 | 357,629 | 319,657 | -37,972 | -10.6 | ||
| 800 | 2,676 | 245 | -2,431 | -90.8 | ||
| 363,991 | 322,433 | -41,558 | -11.4 | |||
| Platinum | ||||||
| 999 | 8 | 11 | 3 | 37.5 | ||
| 950 | 23,847 | 25,498 | 1,651 | 6.9 | ||
| 900 | 6 | 30 | 24 | 400.0 | ||
| 850 | 42 | 26 | -16 | -38.1 | ||
| 23,903 | 25,565 | 1,662 | 7.0 | |||
| Palladium | ||||||
| 999 | 2 | 1 | -1 | -50.0 | ||
| 950 | 6,404 | 9,021 | 2,617 | 40.9 | ||
| 500 | 1,262 | 1,338 | 76 | 6.0 | ||
| 7,668 | 10,360 | 2,692 | 35.1 | |||
| 779,881 | 687,550 | -92,331 | -11.8 |
