MEMBERS AREA
This area is reserved to Members and Observers of the HMC only
Last update: 16/12/2007
The objective of the Hallmarking Convention is to facilitate trade in precious metal articles while at the same time maintaining fair trade and consumer protection justified by the particular nature of these articles. For that purpose, the Hallmarking Convention has introduced the first international hallmark – the Common Control Mark (CCM) – indicating the precious metal and its fineness.
The Convention enables designated national Assay Offices under the terms of the Convention to apply the Common Control Mark to articles of gold, silver and platinum after having tested their fineness in accordance with agreed testing methods. Each Contracting State allows goods marked with this CCM to be imported without further testing and marking (if such articles qualify for the domestic market).
| Gold | Silver | Platinium |
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| 999-916-750-585-375-375 | 999-925-830-800 | 999-950-900-850 |
Articles bearing the Convention mark (the CCM) - together with the national Assay Office Mark, the responsibility mark and the fineness mark - are accepted without further testing or marking by any of the Contracting States.
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| COMMON CONTROL MARK |
ASSAY OFFICE MARK |
RESPONSABILITY MARK |
FINENESS MARK |
Responsibility marks have to be registered in the country which applies the CCM. Thereby, they do not need to be registered in the importing country.
Members will only accept CCM marked articles of a fineness which is legal in the importing country. Each country remains free to determine the standards of precious metal articles that can be manufactured or put on sale within its borders.
The marking of articles of precious metals with the CCM is carried out on a voluntary basis; compulsory hallmarking is not required from the Contracting States to the Convention. This means in practice that an exporter has the choice between (i) asking his domestic assay office for the CCM marking or (ii) sending its goods without CCM to the exporting State. In the first case, CCM-marked goods will be accepted without further control in the importing country while in the second case, the articles will have to meet the requirements of the importing State (e.g. registration of the responsibility mark).
As the requirements under the Hallmarking Convention are often more rigorous than domestic regulations, the CCM has earned an international reputation of integrity and quality. In 2002, more than 25 million articles of precious metals were marked with the CCM.
