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The total number of hallmarked items fell 9.1% in January, a decrease of 67,252 articles when compared with January 2015.
That is according to latest figures released today by the four UK assay offices, and compiled by the Birmingham Assay Office, which found during the month there was a total of 675,073 articles hallmarked compared with 742,325 in January last year.
The total number of gold articles hallmarked was also down 9.1%, with 18-carat and 9-carat gold items reporting the largest declines at 16.2% and 13%, respectively. Despite this, 22-carat gold saw an increase of 19.6% to 39,081 articles hallmarked.
Silver reported a decline of 9% as the number of hallmarked silver items fell by 33,511, while palladium recorded the steepest decline in the number of articles hallmarked, down 32.4%.
Meanwhile, platinum was the only metal to report an increase in the number of articles hallmarked – up from 21,156 in January last year to 21,830, an increase of 3.2%.
| Month | Month | Variance | % | |||
| Jan-15 | Jan-16 | |||||
| Gold | ||||||
| 999 | 146 | 7 | -139 | -95.2 | ||
| 990 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | ||
| 916 | 32,686 | 39,081 | 6,395 | 19.6 | ||
| 750 | 59,752 | 50,061 | -9,691 | -16.2 | ||
| 585 | 4,068 | 8,062 | 3,994 | 98.2 | ||
| 375 | 242,228 | 210,738 | -31,490 | -13.0 | ||
| 338,880 | 307,949 | -30,931 | -9.1 | |||
| Silver | ||||||
| 999 | 824 | 959 | 135 | 16.4 | ||
| 958 | 1,249 | 1,003 | -246 | -19.7 | ||
| 925 | 369,426 | 336,004 | -33,422 | -9.0 | ||
| 800 | 35 | 57 | 22 | 62.9 | ||
| 371,534 | 338,023 | -33,511 | -9.0 | |||
| Platinum | ||||||
| 999 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | ||
| 950 | 21,154 | 21,827 | 673 | 3.2 | ||
| 900 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 100.0 | ||
| 850 | 2 | 1 | -1 | -50.0 | ||
| 21,156 | 21,830 | 674 | 3.2 | |||
| Palladium | ||||||
| 999 | 1 | 0 | -1 | -100.0 | ||
| 950 | 8,630 | 5953 | -2,677 | -31.0 | ||
| 500 | 2,124 | 1318 | -806 | -37.9 | ||
| 10,755 | 7271 | -3,484 | -32.4 | |||
| 742,325 | 675,073 | -67,252 | -9.1 |
