Coronavirus
Hallmarking falls by 35% as coronavirus impact hits
The extent to which the coronavirus outbreak has impacted UK hallmarking has been revealed as the latest figures show both the number of gold and silver pieces hallmarked during March fell by over 30% each.
The number of gold and silver pieces hallmarked in March 2020 decreased by 32.3% and 39.1% respectively, according to figures compiled by the Birmingham Assay Office.
Gold hallmarked pieces decreased from 334,709 to 226,460 and silver items decreased from 325,093 to 1977,926 during the month.
Additionally, palladium decreased by 80.9% to 660 items hallmarked during the period. Platinum hallmarking also decreased by 14.5% to 23,537.
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Overall hallmarking in March decreased by 35.1 % from 690,784 to 448,583 pieces.
| Mar-19 | Mar 20 | Variance | % | |
| Gold | ||||
| 999 | 367 | 135 | -232 | -63.2 |
| 990 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 916 | 37,561 | 20,464 | -17,097 | -45.5 |
| 750 | 68,158 | 46,413 | -21,745 | -31.9 |
| 585 | 16,294 | 7,999 | -8,295 | -50.9 |
| 375 | 212,328 | 151,448 | -60,880 | -28.7 |
| 334,709 | 226,460 | -108,249 | -32.3 | |
| Silver | ||||
| 999 | 1,388 | 965 | -423 | -30.5 |
| 958 | 550 | 1,850 | 1,300 | 236.4 |
| 925 | 323,142 | 195,106 | -128,036 | -39.6 |
| 800 | 13 | 5 | -8 | -61.5 |
| 325,093 | 197,926 | -127,167 | -39.1 | |
| Platinum | ||||
| 999 | 1 | 0 | -1 | -100 |
| 950 | 27,462 | 23,479 | -3,983 | -14.5 |
| 900 | 50 | 49 | -1 | -2 |
| 850 | 11 | 9 | -2 | -18.2 |
| 27,524 | 23,537 | -3,987 | -14.5 | |
| Palladium | ||||
| 999 | 1 | 0 | -1 | -100 |
| 950 | 2,780 | 433 | -2,347 | -84.4 |
| 500 | 677 | 227 | -450 | -66.5 |
| 3,458 | 660 | -2,798 | -80.9 | |
| Totals | 690,784 | 448,583 | -242,201 | -35.1 |
