Rates & buying guide

How a price is built

There is no mystery in it, and any jeweller who will not show you the working is worth being careful with. Five lines make up every gold bill in India:

Line	What it is
Metal value	Today's rate per gram × the net weight of metal
Making charge	The labour. A percentage of the metal value, a flat rate per gram, or a fixed amount
Making discount	Any reduction on that labour charge. It never reduces the metal value
Stones	Charged separately, by carat or per piece. Never at gold rate
GST	3% on the sub-total, as required on gold and silver jewellery

Two more things worth knowing. A wastage charge is a percentage some jewellers add on top of the metal value to cover metal lost in working — where it applies it appears as its own line, never hidden inside the rate. And a hallmarking charge is a small fixed government fee per piece.

Know your gold

Purity is measured in karats and stamped as a number out of 1000.

Mark	Karat	Pure gold	Used for
999	24KT	99.9%	Coins and bars. Too soft for jewellery
916	22KT	91.6%	The standard for Indian gold jewellery
750	18KT	75.0%	Diamond and stone settings, which need a harder metal

Since 2021, gold jewellery sold in India must carry a BIS hallmark with three marks: the BIS logo, the purity (916), and a six-character HUID unique to that piece. The HUID is on your bill as well as on the piece, and you can check it in the BIS Care app.

What to actually check when you buy: that the hallmark is on the piece, that the HUID on the bill matches it, that the bill shows gross and net weight separately, that the making charge is its own line, and that GST is calculated on the sub-total rather than added twice.

Know your silver

Silver is marked the same way: 999 is fine silver, used for coins and puja articles; 925 is sterling, alloyed to be hard enough for articles that get handled. Silver is priced by weight in exactly the same way as gold, with a making charge that is usually a flat rate per gram because the labour, not the metal, dominates the cost.

Silver tarnishes. That is oxidation, not a fault, and it polishes off.

Know your gemstones

Gemstones are the part of this trade where a customer is most exposed, because two stones that look identical across a counter can differ in price by ten times. What decides it:

• Natural, treated or synthetic. Almost all rubies and sapphires on the market are heat-treated, which is normal and disclosed. A synthetic stone is grown in a laboratory — it is not a fake, but it is worth a fraction of a natural one and must be sold as such.
• Colour. The single biggest factor. Depth and evenness of colour matter more than size.
• Clarity. How much is visible inside the stone. Emeralds are expected to have inclusions; a flawless one should make you suspicious.
• Cut and carat. Weight is measured in carats (0.2 g). Price per carat rises steeply with size, so a 2-carat stone costs far more than two 1-carat stones.
• Certification. A lab certificate states what the stone is and what has been done to it.

Beads and strands

The bead wall is priced differently. Strands are sold whole, priced by the material, the size and evenness of the beads, and the quality of the drilling. We string to your length while you wait. Because grading is the whole price, bead and gemstone prices are quoted in person and never listed as a fixed figure on this site.

Ask about a stone

Know your rudraksh

A rudraksh is graded by its mukhi — the number of natural vertical faces or clefts running down the seed. One-mukhi and rare high counts command the highest prices; five-mukhi is the most common and the most affordable.

• Origin. Nepali beads are larger with deeper clefts; Indonesian beads are smaller and smoother. Both are genuine; they are different products at different prices.
• Count the faces yourself. The clefts should run unbroken from the top hole to the bottom. Ask, and we will show you under the glass.
• Capping. Beads are capped in silver or gold for a chain. That capping is charged by weight like any other metal work.

Beware of any claim that a bead is guaranteed to produce a particular result. We sell the bead and tell you honestly what it is; we do not make promises about what it will do.

Ring & bangle sizes

Ring size

Indian ring sizes are numbered. The simplest home method: wrap a strip of paper around the base of the finger, mark where it overlaps, and measure that length in millimetres.

Inner circumference	Indian size	US size
44.2 mm	4	3
46.8 mm	6	4
49.3 mm	8	5
51.9 mm	10	6
54.4 mm	12	7
57.0 mm	14	8
59.5 mm	16	9
62.1 mm	18	10

Measure at the end of the day, when fingers are at their largest, and make sure the ring will pass over the knuckle. We size rings at the shop, which is more reliable than any chart.

Bangle size

Press your thumb into your palm as if putting a bangle on, and measure around the widest part of that shape.

Hand circumference	Bangle size	Diameter
Up to 18.4 cm	2.4	5.7 cm
18.4 – 19.4 cm	2.6	6.1 cm
19.4 – 20.3 cm	2.8	6.5 cm
20.3 – 21.3 cm	2.10	6.9 cm
21.3 – 22.2 cm	2.12	7.3 cm

Caring for your jewellery

• Put jewellery on last when dressing and take it off first. Perfume, hairspray and cosmetics are what dull gold, not wear.
• Take it off for swimming. Chlorine attacks the alloys in gold.
• Store pieces separately in cloth or tissue. Gold scratches gold.
• Clean plain gold in warm water with a drop of mild soap and a very soft brush. Dry it completely.
• Do not put emeralds, pearls, coral or rudraksh in an ultrasonic cleaner, and keep them away from soap. Wipe them with a dry soft cloth only.
• Bring anything bought here back for free polishing whenever it needs it.