Improper hallmarking on golden jewelry in Armenia increases risk of imitation
21.02.2014,
16:48
Improper hallmarking on golden jewelry in Armenia increases the risk of imitation, Babken Pipoyan, head of the Informed and Protected Consumer organization, said on Friday.
YEREVAN, February 21. /ARKA/. Improper hallmarking on golden jewelry in Armenia increases the risk of imitation, Babken Pipoyan, head of the Informed and Protected Consumer organization, said on Friday.
In 2008, the finance ministry obliged Armenian jewelers to put a hallmark with Sasuntsi David depicture and a fineness mark on ever golden jewelry piece.
“Yesterday we toured golden jewelry shops in Yerevan because of the complaints we have received, and everywhere we saw unclear and smudgy depictions of Sasuntsi David,” he said. “Even codes of companies’ licenses were not visible on jewelry pieces. We saw not a single piece marked properly.”
This situation leaves room for gold imitations. “Codes on a jewelry piece make it possible to know what company has produced it and who is responsible, and shoddy marking deprived consumers of this opportunity,” Pipoyan said.
The companies blame for improper marking incompetent jewelers, who, as they say, damage hallmarks. Traders, on their side, say they receive jewelry already with shoddy marks.
Taking into account the lack of the control over compliance with the government’s 2008 decision, Pipoyan finds it necessary to organize public discussions over the matter with involvement of concerned organizations and to work out mechanisms for solving the problem.
Problems in Armenia’s gold jewelry market have been also before that. In 2013, ten traders at Yerevan’s Gold Market were fined up to AMD 2 million. -0---
