The whole process, including the parts most buyers would rather you did not ask about
Fifteen minutes, six steps, and one of them cannot be undone. This page tells you which, and what to watch for at every counter in this city — not only ours.
Walk in and hand it over
No appointment, no token queue. You keep your jewellery in sight from the moment it leaves your hand.
- There is no regulatory reason for an appointment and we do not invent one. Come in during counter hours and you will be seen.
- We take a photo ID for our purchase record. Aadhaar, PAN, passport, voter ID or driving licence — any current government photo ID works.
- Where a single transaction exceeds ₹2,00,000, Rule 114B of the Income-tax Rules requires PAN for bullion and jewellery, whatever the payment method. If you genuinely hold no PAN, Form 60 is the prescribed declaration and we will give you one to sign.
- The original purchase bill helps but is not required. It is your gold; you do not have to prove where it came from.
Cleaned before it is weighed
Ultrasonic and steam, in front of you, before the scale — not after. The order matters more than it sounds.
- Years of polish residue, body oil, soap and dust sit in the links of a chain and in the crevices of a kasu mala. That is real weight.
- A counter that weighs first and cleans later has a gross number on record that it can later revise downwards. Cleaning first removes the argument entirely.
- Nothing that comes off in cleaning is gold, and nothing that is gold comes off in cleaning.
Watch for this anywhere: If a buyer weighs before cleaning, ask why. There is no good answer.
Weighed on a stamped scale
A Class II balance reading to 0.01 g, tared to zero in front of you, carrying a current Legal Metrology stamp.
- The Legal Metrology Act, 2009 requires jewellery trade balances to be at least Class II accuracy and to display to the centigram. Ours is stamped and periodically re-verified by the Karnataka Department of Legal Metrology.
- Using an unverified scale carries a fine of ₹2,000 to ₹10,000, and imprisonment on a repeat offence. The certificate is on the wall; ask to see it.
- The display faces you. You read the gross weight at the same moment we do.
Watch for this anywhere: A scale angled away from the customer, or one with no visible verification sticker.
Purity read by XRF, on a screen you can see
A non-destructive X-ray fluorescence test, typically within 0.1–0.5% of a fire assay on clean metal. Your piece comes back intact.
- XRF is what BIS hallmarking centres use to screen. It reads composition without cutting, scratching or dissolving anything.
- We turn the monitor towards you. The reading is a number, not an opinion, and you see it at the same time we do.
- One honest limitation: XRF reads the surface and the few microns beneath it. On a heavily plated piece or one with a lot of low-karat solder at the joints, a surface reading can differ from the true average.
- Where that matters — large lots, suspected plating, an unusual reading — we will tell you, and offer a melt-and-retest instead of quietly quoting the lower number.
Watch for this anywhere: A touchstone-and-acid streak used on its own. It is operator-dependent, accurate to two or three karats at best, and it only reads the surface. As a cross-check it is fine. As the only test, it is a warning.
An itemised quote, on paper
Gross weight, less non-gold weight, times measured purity, times the published rate. Every line visible, nothing rolled up.
- Stones, kundan foil backing, meena enamel, lac filling, clasps, screws and thread are removed or weighed out and listed separately. You are not paid gold rates for glass — and you are not charged for it either.
- Kundan and jadau are the honest exception worth knowing about: the lac packed behind the foil is dead weight and routinely accounts for a large share of gross weight. We show you the removed material.
- Solder at the joints lowers the measured purity, so it is already inside the purity number. We do not then deduct for it a second time.
- We deduct nothing for making charges and nothing for "wastage". Manufacturing wastage was a cost you already paid your jeweller; it is not ours to charge again.
- If a lot has to be melted, genuine refining loss rarely exceeds 1–2%. Where it applies we state the figure up front and cap it. Anyone quoting 5% is quoting margin and calling it loss.
Watch for this anywhere: Any flat percentage with no physical justification. Purity discount, real non-gold weight and a stated melt loss are the whole legitimate list. Ask what physically causes anything beyond those three.
Paid before you leave
Up to ₹10,000 in cash if you want it, and the balance by IMPS, NEFT or RTGS — landing while you are still at the counter.
- The cash cap is not us being difficult. Section 40A(3) of the Income-tax Act disallows any single-day cash payment above ₹10,000 to one person as a business expense, so a buyer who exceeds it is taxed on the whole sum as if it were profit. No legitimate buyer does it twice.
- There is a second limit pointing the other way. Section 269ST bars receiving ₹2,00,000 or more in cash, and Section 271DA allows a penalty of the whole amount against the person who received it — in a gold sale, you.
- NEFT and RTGS now run 24×7×365, and RBI has removed the charges on online NEFT from savings accounts. Above ₹2 lakh we use RTGS, which typically settles in minutes.
- You get a purchase voucher with the weight, purity, rate and amount on it. Keep it — it is your cost-of-sale record if you ever need to show capital gains.
The one step you cannot undo
Melting homogenises a piece and often reveals a slightly better average purity than a surface reading. It is also final: once your jewellery is melted, it cannot be handed back. We will never melt anything before you have seen the quote and said yes. Until that moment, you can take your gold and walk out, and we will hand it back exactly as it came in.
The piece of paper, before you are standing at a counter
Here is ours, worked in full on an ordinary stone-set haram, so you know what a complete quote looks like before you have to read one under pressure.
Read it once and you will be able to tell in five seconds whether a quote in front of you is missing a line. That is a useful thing to be able to do anywhere, which is rather the point of publishing it.
Specimen quote slip
A 32 g stone-set haram, worked in full
- Gross weight, as received
- 32.40 g
- Less stones, removed and weighed separatelyReturned to you, or quoted separately if you prefer
- − 4.86 g
- Net gold weight
- 27.54 g
- Measured purity, XRFStamped 916; assayed slightly under, as solder at the joints usually is
- 91.3%
- Pure gold content
- 25.144 g
- Market reference, 999 fineIBJA morning print, the same figure published on our rate page
- ₹15,580 / g
- Payout rate — unhallmarked or stone-set, 96%
- ₹14,957 / g
There is no line below this one. No wastage, no making-charge reversal, no melting charge, no transaction fee, no testing fee, no handling fee, no commission and no GST. If a quote anywhere shows you a percentage you cannot point at a physical cause for, that is margin wearing a costume.
Seven questions worth asking every gold buyer, including this one
We would rather you interrogate the whole market than take our word for anything. If another counter answers these better, go there.
What per-gram figure will I be paid?
- Common practice
- The market rate is displayed. The percentage actually paid is not, and is only revealed at the counter.
- Here
- Market reference, payout percentage and rupees per gram, all published and timestamped before you travel.
How is purity established?
- Common practice
- "German technology" or "advanced machines", with the screen often facing away from the customer.
- Here
- XRF, monitor turned towards you, and an honest note about what a surface reading cannot tell you.
What gets deducted?
- Common practice
- A flat percentage, described as wastage or melting, with no itemisation.
- Here
- Three lines only: purity, physical non-gold weight, and a capped melt loss where melting is needed.
Does GST come off my payout?
- Common practice
- Usually unaddressed, which leaves the fear intact.
- Here
- No. An individual selling their own jewellery makes no taxable supply — CBIC has said so in writing.
What is the capital gains position?
- Common practice
- Often unaddressed, and some pages still carry the pre-2024 rule of 36 months and 20% with indexation.
- Here
- 24 months and a flat 12.5% with no indexation, as it has been since 23 July 2024.
How much cash can I take?
- Common practice
- "Instant cash, any amount" — which cannot be true and workable at the same time.
- Here
- ₹10,000, with the section of the Act that sets the limit, and why a bigger cash payment is your problem rather than ours.
Can I change my mind?
- Common practice
- Rarely stated, and the melting step is rarely flagged as irreversible.
- Here
- Yes, until you sign. Nothing is melted before that, and the piece goes home intact.
The counter, and how purity is established
X-ray fluorescence, on a benchtop analyser, with the screen turned towards you. XRF reads the metal composition without cutting, scratching or dissolving anything, and on clean metal typically lands within 0.1–0.5% of a fire assay. It is the same screening method BIS hallmarking centres use.
No. XRF is entirely non-destructive — your piece comes back exactly as it went in. That is the whole reason we use it instead of an acid streak.
Nothing, as a cross-check. Everything, as the only test. A touchstone streak is accurate to two or three karats at best, depends entirely on the operator’s eye, and reads only the surface. If a buyer is deciding your payout on a rubbed streak and a colour chart, you are being valued by opinion.
It can be incomplete, and we would rather say so. XRF reads the surface and a few microns beneath it, so a heavily plated piece or one with a lot of low-karat solder at the joints can read differently from its true average. Where that is a risk we tell you and offer to melt and re-test rather than quietly quote you the lower number.
Yes. A hallmark is a certificate of what the maker claimed; the XRF test measures what is actually there. Plenty of older, inherited and imported pieces carry no BIS mark at all and sell perfectly normally.
916 parts of gold per thousand — 91.6% pure, which is 22 karat, and the standard for most Indian jewellery. The other BIS marks you will find stamped on a piece are 750 for 18K and 585 for 14K. Note that 24K jewellery is hallmarked 995, not 999: 999 is the fineness for bullion, and jewellery cannot practically be worked at it.
Usually solder. The joints in a chain or the posts on an earring are set with a lower-karat alloy, so an average across the whole piece comes in a little under the stamp. It is normal and it is not anyone cheating you — but it is exactly why you should watch the reading rather than take it on trust.
Only after you have seen the quote, and only if you are certain. Melting mixes the metal evenly and often reveals a slightly better average purity than a surface reading. It is also irreversible — once a piece is melted it cannot be handed back. We will never melt anything before you have agreed to the price.
The Legal Metrology Act requires jewellery trade balances to be at least Class II accuracy and to read to 0.01 g, verified and stamped by the state department. Ours carries a current stamp and the certificate is on the wall. Using an unverified scale carries a fine of ₹2,000 to ₹10,000 and imprisonment on repeat. Ask to see the sticker — anywhere, not just here.
Because polish residue, oil and years of dust are real weight, and they are not gold. Cleaning first means the gross weight on record is the true one. A counter that weighs first and cleans afterwards has given itself a number it can revise downwards later.
No. Walk in during counter hours. There is no regulatory reason for an appointment and we are not going to invent one to manage your expectations.
About fifteen minutes for a straightforward sale, start to money in your account. Pledged-gold releases take longer because a third party is involved.
You take your gold and go. Nothing is melted, cut or altered before you have seen the written quote and said yes, so the piece goes back to you exactly as it arrived. There is no fee and no argument.
You are meant to. The cleaning, the weighing and the XRF test all happen at the counter with the displays facing you. If you cannot see a number from where you are standing, say so and we will move it.
For larger lots and for customers who cannot travel, yes — call us and we will arrange it. The process is identical; the equipment comes to you.
Then do not. Call before you travel and we will bring the scale and the XRF to you instead — there is no charge for the visit and nothing about the process changes. If you do come in, bring whoever you like; nobody is asked to wait outside. And because the rate on your quote slip holds for the rest of that day, you can go away and think about it without the number moving.
No, and you should not want to. Cash is capped at ₹10,000 anyway; everything above that reaches your own bank account by IMPS, NEFT or RTGS, usually before you have left the counter. Nobody watches you walk out with a bag.
A purchase voucher listing gross weight, non-gold weight deducted, measured purity, the rate applied and the amount paid. Keep it. It is your cost-of-sale record if you ever need to show a capital gain.
Bring it in. Watch every number. Decide at the end.
The valuation is free, it takes about fifteen minutes, and there is no fee and no argument if you decide to take your gold home again.