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Rising hallmarking figures showed no signs of slowing in June with the four UK assay offices reporting a 60.1% rise in the number of 14ct articles hallmarked, and a 17.1% rise for gold overall, compared with June 2013.
But whilst the total number of articles hallmarked across all categories rose by 15.6% for the month, the quarter-on-quarter comparison of the three months to June 2014 showed much greater growth, rising by 20.8% from 1.86 million articles, to 2.25 million articles, compared with the same three months in 2013.
In a statement, the Birmingham Assay Office said: “The figures for Q2 of 2014 show an overall increase in articles hallmarked of 20%, this follows a strong [Q1] when the UK Assay Offices handled an increase of 23.1%. The uplift we have seen in the first half of 2014 is a promising sign for the remainder of 2014.”
UK year-on-year hallmarking figures for June
24ct (999) – up 41.7% (34 items)
24ct (990) – no change (0 items)
22ct (916) – up 20.8% (40,724 items)
18ct (750) – up 12.6% (67,346 items)
14ct (585) – up 60.1% (6,680 items)
9ct (375) –up 17% (240,059 items)
Total gold items – up 17.1% (354,843 items)
Fine silver (999) – up 48.9% (1,855 items)
Britannia silver (958) – up 99.7% (1,446 items)
Sterling silver (925) – up 15.3% (373,328 items)
800 parts silver – up 496.2% (155 items)
Total silver items –up 15.6% (376,784 items)
999 parts – down 100% (0 items)
950 parts – up 1.3% (21,198 items)
900 parts –down 69.1% (8 items)
850 parts – up 333.3% (13 items)
Total platinum items – up 1.2% (21,219 items)
999 parts – no change (0 items)
950 parts – down 9.5% (9,207 items)
500 parts – up 101.7% (2,334 items)
Total palladium items – up 2.2% (11,541 items)
Total hallmarked articles in June 2014: up 15.6% (764,387 items)
