MEMBERS AREA
This area is reserved to Members and Observers of the HMC only
Last update : 24/06/2010
Stockholm (16 January 2009): The Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, acting as the Convention's Depositary, has officially notified all Contracting States that Slovenia will become the Hallmarking Convention's 19th Contracting State on 5 March 2009. Slovenia successfully deposited its instrument of ratification with the Depositary on 5 December 2008. The Parliament of Slovenia ratified on 15 July 2008 the Hallmarking Convention as well as the 2001 Amendment to the Convention.
Vilnius (19 November 2009): The Lithuanian Parliament ratified today the 2001 Amendment to the Hallmarking Convention. Lithuania is the last of the 19 Contracting States to have ratified. Once the Lithuanian instruments of acceptance will have been deposited with the Convention's Depositary (the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs), the amended Convention will enter into force one months later. The amended Convention provides, inter alia, for the introduction of palladium and entitles the Standing Committee (the main decision-taking body under the Convention) to take binding decisions on technical matter.
Kiev (22 Sept 2008): The 63rd meeting of the Standing Committee, set up under the Hallmarking Convention, took place in Kiev (Ukraine) on 22 September 2008. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Ronald W.A. Le Bas (Irish Assay Office) and attended by 58 officials representing the Convention's eighteen Contracting States, three Applicant States (Slovenia, Sri Lanka & Ukraine) as well as guests from Italy, Moldova (first-time attendance), Romania, Russia (last attendance: 1994), and Spain.
Read moreIpswich (6 October 2009): Dr. Frank W. Bennett, Chairman of the Standing Committee from 1990 to 1995, died today at the age of 81 years.
Dr. Bennett, who was Deputy Warden at the Assay Office London, first attended a Standing Committee meeting in October 1982 and served for 14 years as Member of the Standing Committee. During all these years, he greatly contributed to both hallmarking and the expansion of the Convention. He was instrumental in bringing the Czech Republic into the Convention in 1994 – only a few years after the Velvet Revolution and the collapse of the communist regime. All other Eastern European and Baltic countries (except Estonia) have since then joined the Convention.
The Chairman of the Standing Committee, Ronald Le Bas, attended the memorial service at Ipswich Crematorium on 23 October and represented the Convention.
Geneva (22 September 2009): The 65th meeting of the Standing Committee, set up under the Hallmarking Convention, was held in Geneva (Switzerland) on 21 September 2009. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Ronald W.A. Le Bas (Irish Assay Office), assisted by Mr. Bjarne Bang Christensen (Denmark), Deputy Chairman. The meeting was attended by 53 officials representing the Convention’s nineteen Contracting States, two Applicants State (Sri Lanka and Ukraine) as well as guests from CIBJO - the World Jewellery Confederation, Croatia, and Serbia.
It was the first time that the World Jewellery Confederation (www.cibjo.org), represented by its President, Dr. Gaetano Cavalieri, attended a meeting. Dr. Cavalieri made several proposals for closer co-operation between CIBJO and the Convention - including the possibility of organising back-to-back meetings in the future.
The Croatian Metrology Institute informed the Committee that it would shortly request the Croatian Government to submit a membership application. The Sri Lankan Assay Office made a progress report on the various actions undertaken by Sri Lanka to comply with the Convention's requirements.
The Committee reviewed the ratification process of the 2001 Amendment to the Convention, which will - amongst other matters - recognise palladium as a precious metal. It noted that Lithuania, the last Contracting State to ratify the Amendment, had just started the ratification process. The Lithuanian Parliament is expected to complete the ratification by November. An entry into force of the Amendment is thus expected by early 2010.
Members discussed a number of technical matters such as the introduction of multimetal articles, permissible platings (including base metal intermediate layers), guidelines on offsite marking, and whether to accept partial hallmarks. Most of these matters were referred back to the Standing Technical Group (the STG is a Sub-Committee of the Standing Committee). The latter should meet in February 2010.
The Committee also reviewed the results of the last two Round Robins on gold and silver (interlaboratory testing scheme on precious metals). The results of the chemical analyses were considered to be good to very good.
Members agreed to reconvene in Zurich (Switzerland) on 13 April 2010.
The meeting was followed by a meeting of The International Association of Assay Offices (www.theiaao.com).
Geneva (10 June 2009): The 2001 Amendment to the Convention has been ratified by Finland (7 May) and the Netherlands (9 June), thus increasing the number of Contracting States having ratified the Amendment to 18. The Amendment, which considerably modernises the Convention and introduces palladium as a new precious metal, will enter into force once it has been ratified by all Contracting States. There is only one State left, which still needs to ratify: it is Lithuania.
London (15 April 2008): The 62nd meeting of the Standing Committee, set up under the Hallmarking Convention, was held at Goldsmiths' Hall on 14 April 2008. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Ronald W.A. Le Bas (Irish Assay Office) and attended by 67 officials representing the Convention's eighteen Contracting States, three Applicant States (Slovenia, Sri Lanka & Ukraine) as well as a number of guests from China, Estonia, Italy, Romania, Singapore (first-time attendance), and Spain.
> Read more
