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The total number of hallmarked items grew 5.4% in March, boosted by an 8.2% jump in the number of gold articles.
That’s according to the latest data from the four UK assay offices – compiled by the Birmingham Assay Office – which found there was a total of 740,976 articles hallmarked throughout the month, compared with 702,725 in March 2015.
The number was boosted by a strong performance for the high-value category of gold, which saw the number of articles hallmarked rise from 353,712 in March last year to 382,834 – an increase of 29,122 items or 8.2%.
The jump was due 16.4% increase in the number of 9-carat articles hallmarked and an 8.5% rise for 18-carat. Despite this, 22-carat and 14-carat – the two categories of gold that reported the largest hallmarking increase in February – fell 26.2% and 1.8%, respectively.
Silver reported an increase of 1.8% as the number of hallmarked items rise by 5,809, while the platinum reported an increase of 10.5% from 23,170 to 25,602 items.
Palladium reported the second greatest increase in the number of items hallmarked – up from 7,612 in March last year to 8,500.
| Month | Month | Variance | % | |||
| Mar-15 | Mar-16 | |||||
| Gold | ||||||
| 999 | 25 | 32 | 7 | 28.0 | ||
| 990 | 2 | 0 | -2 | -100.0 | ||
| 916 | 54,033 | 39,852 | -14,181 | -26.2 | ||
| 750 | 60,633 | 65,807 | 5,174 | 8.5 | ||
| 585 | 6,380 | 6,262 | -118 | -1.8 | ||
| 375 | 232,639 | 270,881 | 38,242 | 16.4 | ||
| 353,712 | 382,834 | 29,122 | 8.2 | |||
| Silver | ||||||
| 999 | 1,357 | 1,324 | -33 | -2.4 | ||
| 958 | 1,486 | 1,157 | -329 | -22.1 | ||
| 925 | 315,205 | 321,531 | 6,326 | 2.0 | ||
| 800 | 183 | 28 | -155 | -84.7 | ||
| 318,231 | 324,040 | 5,809 | 1.8 | |||
| Platinum | ||||||
| 999 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 100.0 | ||
| 950 | 23,089 | 25,526 | 2,437 | 10.6 | ||
| 900 | 66 | 61 | -5 | -7.6 | ||
| 850 | 15 | 10 | -5 | -33.3 | ||
| 23,170 | 25,602 | 2,432 | 10.5 | |||
| Palladium | ||||||
| 999 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | ||
| 950 | 6,564 | 7,157 | 593 | 9.0 | ||
| 500 | 1,048 | 1,343 | 295 | 28.1 | ||
| 7,612 | 8,500 | 888 | 11.7 | |||
| 702,725 | 740,976 | 38,251 | 5.4 |
