Gold Hallmarks and Purity Checks in the UAE – 916, 875, 750 Stamps and How to Test Gold

What a gold hallmark tells you: 999, 916, 875, 750 and 585

Gold purity is expressed either in karats (parts out of 24) or in fineness (parts per thousand), and the stamp uses the second system. The common marks you will meet in the UAE:

The number is the minimum fineness the maker guarantees; the rest is alloy (copper, silver, zinc, palladium) that gives hardness and colour. The karats explained page covers how alloy changes colour and durability. Beside the fineness you will often see a maker's mark (a logo or initials) and sometimes a country or assay mark. On the invoice, the karat must match the stamp: a piece stamped 750 should be priced from the 18K rate, not the 22K rate. Look for the stamp inside rings, on the clasp or end-tag of chains and bracelets, on the back of pendants and earrings, and on the inner surface of bangles.

Dubai gold hallmark: conformity marks and the Dubai Central Laboratory

The UAE does not have a compulsory national assay-office hallmark of the British kind, where every piece is tested and struck by a government office before sale. Instead, Dubai relies on a combination of federal standards for the fineness and marking of precious metals, the retailer's legal responsibility for the stamp, and a voluntary conformity scheme run by Dubai Municipality through the Dubai Central Laboratory (DCL). Under that scheme, participating jewellers and manufacturers have their products tested and can apply a Dubai conformity mark, widely known in the trade as the Bareeq mark, alongside the fineness stamp and their own logo.

In practice this means three layers of assurance. First, the fineness stamp itself, which the law requires to be truthful. Second, the manufacturer's or retailer's mark, which ties the piece to a business that can be held responsible. Third, where present, the DCL conformity mark, which indicates the maker's output is sampled and tested by an accredited laboratory. Large chains and souk manufacturers that export are the most likely to carry it; a small shop's unbranded 21K bangle may carry only the 875 stamp and still be perfectly genuine.

Because the mark is a certification rather than a per-piece assay, the best protection remains buying from an established shop that will test the piece in front of you and put the purity on a tax invoice. The Deira Gold Souk and the Gold & Diamond Park both have testing facilities nearby, and Dubai Municipality's laboratory offers assay services to the public and the trade.

916 hallmark meaning: the Indian BIS mark and other foreign stamps

Much of the 22K jewellery sold in the UAE is made in India or made by Indian manufacturers in Dubai, so the Indian hallmark appears everywhere. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) hallmark on a 22K piece consists of the BIS logo, the fineness 916 (often written "22K916"), and a six-digit alphanumeric code (HUID) that identifies the piece in the BIS register; older pieces may show the assay centre's mark and the jeweller's mark instead of the code. BIS hallmarking is compulsory in India for 14K, 18K, 20K, 22K, 23K and 24K jewellery sold by registered jewellers, and the 916 mark is what Indian buyers look for when reselling at home.

A BIS mark is not a UAE guarantee, but it is useful: it shows the piece was assayed in India and gives a resale advantage in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Mumbai or Delhi. If you plan to carry a set home, buying hallmarked 916 gold makes the conversation with an Indian jeweller simpler later; the customs guide covers the allowances. Pakistani and Sri Lankan pieces usually carry the fineness and a maker's mark only.

Other marks you may meet: Italian chains stamped 750 with a star and a province code; Turkish 21K and 22K with the fineness and a maker's symbol; Swiss and British pieces with assay-office marks; Singapore and Hong Kong pieces with 916 or 999 and the retailer's name. In every case, the three-digit fineness is the number that matters for the price.

How shops test gold: XRF spectrometer, acid test and electronic testers

Serious gold shops in the UAE can confirm purity in under a minute, and you are entitled to ask them to do so before you buy or sell.

• XRF spectrometer. The benchtop machine with a small chamber that most souk and chain shops keep behind the counter. It fires X-rays at the surface and reads the fluorescence of each element, printing the gold percentage and the alloy composition. It is non-destructive and accurate to a fraction of a percent on the surface it reads, which is also its limit: a thick plating over a base-metal core can fool a surface reading, so testers may file a small spot or test several points on a heavy piece.
• Acid test. The piece is rubbed on a touchstone and the streak is treated with nitric-acid solutions calibrated for 14K, 18K, 22K and so on; a streak that dissolves is below that karat. Quick and cheap, slightly destructive, and dependent on the tester's eye.
• Electronic testers. Pen-type conductivity meters that give a karat estimate; convenient for a first screen, less reliable than XRF.
• Fire assay. The laboratory method, where a sample is melted and the gold separated and weighed. The most accurate, used by refiners and the Dubai Central Laboratory, not at the counter.

When selling, a buyer will usually weigh, XRF-test and sometimes acid-test your piece, then quote from the day's rate for the purity found; the selling guide explains what a fair deduction looks like.

Gold purity test at home: what works, what does not

Home checks can catch crude fakes but cannot tell 21K from 22K or detect a good plating. Use them as a first filter, never as a final verdict.

• Find the stamp. Use a phone camera zoomed in. No stamp on a modern piece is suspicious; a stamp proves nothing by itself, since fakes are stamped too.
• Magnet. Gold is not magnetic. A strong magnet that pulls the piece means a steel or iron core. Many fakes use non-magnetic brass or copper, so passing this test means little.
• Density. Weigh the piece on a kitchen scale to 0.01 g, then weigh it suspended in water; weight in air divided by (weight in air minus weight in water) gives density. Pure gold is about 19.3 g/cm³, 22K roughly 17.5–18, 18K about 15–16. Hollow pieces, stones and air pockets distort the result.
• Colour and wear. Look at edges, clasps and the inside of rings for a different-coloured metal showing through; that indicates plating.
• Skin and ceramic tests. Green or black marks on skin usually mean base metal; a streak on unglazed ceramic should be gold-coloured, not grey.
• Bite and scratch tests. Do not. They damage the piece and prove nothing.

If the piece passes these and you still want certainty, pay for a shop XRF test or a laboratory assay. For investment bars, check the refiner's serial number against the assay card and keep the seal intact; the gold bars page explains why a broken seal lowers the resale price.

Fake gold in Dubai: the tactics to know

Dubai's gold trade is regulated and the established shops have far more to lose than to gain from fraud, so genuine fakes at the counter are rare. The risks sit at the edges of the market. The tactics that do appear, in the UAE and elsewhere:

• Underkarat stamping. A piece stamped 916 that assays at 20K or 21K. The buyer loses a few percent of metal value without noticing. Only a test catches it.
• Heavy plating. Thick 22K plating over silver, brass or tungsten (which has a density close to gold). Surface XRF reads gold; weight and density or a filed test spot expose it.
• Gross-weight pricing. Charging the gold rate on the combined weight of gold and stones, or on a hollow piece filled with wax or resin.
• Street sellers and "too good" offers. Anyone offering gold below the published metal rate, outside a shop, with a story about urgency, is selling something that is not gold.
• Fake bars. Counterfeit packaging of well-known refiners with a tungsten core. Buy bars only from authorised dealers and check serial numbers.
• Online listings with stock photos, no TRN and no physical address.

The defences are simple: buy from a shop with a rate board, a tax invoice and a testing machine; ask for a test; and prefer the clusters described in the gold shops by area guide and the chains in the jewellers guide.

Gold testing in Dubai: where to get a purity check

If you inherited jewellery, bought abroad, or simply want a second opinion, you have several options for gold testing in Dubai and the other emirates. Most jewellers in the Gold Souk, Meena Bazaar, Karama and the chain showrooms will run an XRF test for a small fee or free if you are selling or buying; ask for a printed result showing the gold percentage. The Gold & Diamond Park has independent testing and certification counters alongside its manufacturers. Dubai Municipality's Dubai Central Laboratory offers assay and certification services for precious metals and jewellery, which is the route for a formal report, for example in a dispute or for insurance.

For investment bars, authorised dealers and refiners around DMCC in JLT can verify a bar's authenticity, often with ultrasonic or XRF checks plus a serial-number lookup. In Abu Dhabi, the jewellers of Madinat Zayed Gold Centre offer counter testing; Sharjah's Central Souk and Rolla shops do the same.

Whatever the route, ask for the result in writing with the purity, the weight and the date. A written result paired with a hallmark and a tax invoice is what makes a piece easy to sell, insure or carry through customs. Prices and fees for testing vary; confirm them before the test.

What to do if you suspect a purity problem

Suspecting that a piece is below its stamped karat is unsettling, but the UAE gives consumers a clear path.

• Get evidence. Have the piece tested by a different shop, or formally by the Dubai Central Laboratory, and get the result in writing.
• Go back to the seller. With the tax invoice and the test, ask for a refund, a replacement or a price adjustment. Most established shops settle immediately, because their reputation depends on it.
• Escalate. If the shop refuses, file a complaint with the consumer protection service of the Department of Economy and Tourism in Dubai (the former DED) or the equivalent economic department in your emirate. A tax invoice with the shop's TRN, the stamped karat and the weight is the core of a complaint; without an invoice, the case is much harder.
• Online and marketplace purchases. Use the platform's dispute process first, then the same consumer channel.
• Serious fraud. Counterfeit bars or organised deception can be reported to Dubai Police.

Prevention is cheaper than complaint: insist on the stamp, a test in front of you and an itemised invoice before paying, exactly as set out in the how to buy gold in Dubai guide. Purity disputes in regulated shops are rare precisely because these habits are normal here.