How pure is the gold that you hold?

Feb 2009

A 60 year old father goes to a jewelers shop to encash the gold which he has meticulously saved over years to cover the expenses for his daughter’s marriage. To his horror, the jeweler says that "Your Gold is impure and contains other substances such as iridium and ruthenium" and the jeweler can’t offer him the market rate. The father had no choice but to accept the discounted rate.

This revelation of gold being mixed with impure substances appeared in Times of India, Mumbai edition dated 30th January 2009. It’s indeed earth shaking for all Gold investors in India. We all buy gold or jewelry as a means of securing our future or funding long term liabilities such as daughter’s marriage or medical expenses or son’s education abroad. But we may not be sure of the purity of Gold that we hold and how much value we may have to lose.

Click here to read the full article in detail that appeared in Times of India. Such fact’s can shatter consumer’s faith in Gold, which is always a safe haven for them. The article talks about how jewelers fleece customers by mixing Iridium and Ruthenium with gold of as much as 6% and are getting away with it unless the gold is subjected to extensive purity tests.

For Investors gaining exposure to gold by saving and Investing in the form of jewelry may find this fact hard to digest.

Jewelers were known to add some amounts of Copper and Silver to the Gold Jewelry during making process to harden the Gold. We were also aware of the high making costs we were charged for the jewelry. Over and above this there were high profit margins that are added to the price, making investments very expensive.

Now, the adulteration of gold by adding other elements not only makes it impure but consumers are made to pay for this impurity. And when the consumer sells the jewelry, the jeweler deducts the weight for the portion that’s impure; a double loss for consumers.