Which precious metal?
It is important for consumers and entrepreneurs to know which precious metal an article was made from. This information is directly linked to the price of the article.
Telling different metals apart visually can often be difficult, especially in case of grey-toned metals. Such precious metals include silver, palladium, platinum and white gold.
Other metals may also look like precious metals because of their colour, including many metal alloys used for jewellery as well as steel and tungsten.
Due to the risk of confusion, the fineness mark on an article of precious metal must also indicate the metal used. The metal is indicated either by the fineness mark baseshape or by the chemical symbol for the precious metal (Au, Ag, Pt, Pd).
If the product does not meet the requirements set for the minimum fineness of articles of precious metals (link), the following terms must not be used in marketing:
- article of precious metal
- gold
- silver
- platinum
- palladium
However, it is permissible to say that such an article contains platinum, gold, palladium or silver. In this connection, you must also clearly state that the precious metal fineness is lower than in an article of precious metal.
