If you have ever bought gold jewellery in India — or watched your mother or grandmother select pieces at a jewellery shop — you have almost certainly seen the number 916 stamped on the piece, printed on the bill, or written on the price tag. Most buyers see it, nod, and move on. But knowing what it actually means could save you from paying for gold that is not what the jeweller claims it is.
Gold purity in India gets described in two parallel ways that confuse a lot of buyers. The karat system — 22K, 24K, 18K — is what most people have grown up hearing. The BIS hallmark system — 916, 999, 750 — is what actually appears stamped on your jewellery and on your purchase receipt. A jeweller might say "22K gold" in conversation and then write "916" on the bill. They mean exactly the same thing. The table below maps them out clearly.
★ Most common for Indian jewellery
Notice that the gap between 24K (999) and 22K (916) is only 8.4 percentage points of purity — but the price difference per gram is significant. That difference is the premium you pay for investment-grade purity versus jewellery-grade practicality.
| Hallmark | Karat | Purity | Common use | Today's rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 999 | 24K | 99.9% | Coins, bars, investment | ₹15,424/g |
| 916 ← most common | 22K | 91.6% | Jewellery (standard) | ₹13,434/g |
| 750 | 18K | 75.0% | Diamond jewellery | ₹12,493/g |
| 585 | 14K | 58.5% | Western jewellery | ₹9,025/g |
Here is something most gold buyers do not realise: pure 24K gold is actually too soft to wear every day. Jewellers have known this for centuries. A ring made of pure gold would scratch visibly just from contact with other surfaces, lose its shape under moderate pressure, and cannot securely grip gemstones. It is beautiful as a coin or a bar — but impractical as a piece of jewellery you intend to wear regularly.
The solution jewellers arrived at was to alloy gold with a small amount of silver or copper — about 8.4% of the total weight — creating what we call 916 gold. This relatively small addition of another metal transforms the physical properties dramatically, producing a metal hard enough for everyday jewellery that still contains 91.6% pure gold by weight. The copper content also gives 916 gold a slightly warmer, richer colour tone compared to the cooler yellow of pure 24K gold — a difference that experienced jewellery buyers in South India specifically look for.
For decades before 2021, BIS hallmarking in India was entirely voluntary. Which meant, in practice, that a significant number of jewellers were selling gold stamped "22K" that contained considerably less than 91.6% actual gold — and buyers had no easy way to verify the claim. The Government of India made BIS hallmarking mandatory in June 2021, and while compliance has been uneven, it has meaningfully changed the consumer's position. Today, if you are buying from a registered jeweller and the piece does not carry a BIS stamp with a HUID, you are within your rights to refuse the purchase and ask why.
A genuine BIS hallmark has exactly three components. Here is what to look for:
The BIS CARE app — free on Android and iOS — is something every gold buyer in India should have on their phone before they walk into a jewellery shop. You type in the 6-character HUID from the piece you are considering, and within seconds it tells you which BIS-licensed centre tested it, on what date, and confirms the purity. If the code comes back as invalid or unrecognised, put the piece down and walk away. A genuine hallmark stamp can be faked; a valid HUID in the BIS database cannot.
The 916 gold rate is not identical across India. While the base rate comes from IBJA nationally, local jewellers associations in each city add their own adjustments for transportation, handling, and regional factors. Cities near major gold import ports — Kochi, Chennai, Mumbai — tend to have marginally lower rates than landlocked cities. The difference is usually ₹10-50 per gram, which on a typical wedding jewellery purchase of 100-200 grams can add up to ₹1,000-10,000.
| City | 22K (916) rate per gram | 1 Pavan (8g) |
|---|---|---|
| Kochi | ₹13,434 | ₹1,07,472 |
| Thiruvananthapuram | ₹15,052 | ₹1,20,416 |
| Chennai | ₹15,069 | ₹1,20,552 |
| Bangalore | ₹15,074 | ₹1,20,592 |
| Mumbai | ₹15,079 | ₹1,20,632 |
The difference between Kochi and Delhi NCR today is ₹416 per gram — which on a 100-gram wedding jewellery purchase works out to ₹41,600. Worth knowing before you buy. Use our Gold Calculator to find the exact value of any gold piece at today's rate in your city.
One final thing worth knowing: the 916 hallmark on your jewellery is your legal protection as a buyer. If a jeweller sells you a piece stamped 916 that turns out to contain less than 91.6% gold, that is a consumer fraud offence under Indian law. Keep your purchase receipt and the HUID verification screenshot. They are your evidence.