The Pakistani Spectator

Gold is used widely of jewelry making in sub-continent and Brides wear golden ornaments on wedding day or any party where ladies gathering is involved jewelry made of gold of various designs is worn by women. If you have to purchase jewelry from a goldsmith the cost of finished product would include the followings:

1. Weight of gold (in Tolla) and multiplied with that days market rate.
2. Workmen ship cost.
3. Polish (the ornament is polished and the cost is charged.

When it is a need to sell that jewelry or renew that in a newer design and you go to goldsmith what happens is as under:

1. He will try to identify that whether it was produced by his shop or not. Then he will ask you from where you have purchased it. Surely you will tell that this was purchased from that city or that goldsmith.

2. Then he will try to asses the purity of gold by different means and will then tell you that this is 20,21 or 22 k gold.

3. The goldsmith deducts a certain amount of gold upto 2 grams per 10 gram by weight. Their logic is that the impurity (matel) was added at the time of producing it (as no ornament can be made of pure gold) will be deducted as that is not gold (remember that was gold when he was selling it to you).

4. Apart from current (fixed) market rate every goldsmith will offer different amounts, of same weight.

The deduction at serial 3 above means if you take the gold five times to a goldsmith then you are deprived of your assest (very strange business).

I want to add some more information we all know that if we hire a servant for house cleaning we have to pay for work, but with the goldsmiths the matter is totally opposite. There are some parties who clean their shops and mats, they have to pay for that to goldsmiths and then those parties extract gold flakes from their mats and do not dispose of the swept material as it also contains gold particles.

What a business . . . !