On November 11, 2010 the 5th Moscow International Jewelry Fair, Golden Globe, hosted a “round-table workshop” to discuss the project of improving assay supervision proposed to be introduced at the Russian Assay Chamber. Earlier, this project was already a source of heated debate. Briefly, its main idea is to replace the regular state hall mark mandatorily used to mark jewelry in Russia with a RFID-tag to be put on jewelry goods.
The event was inaugurated by Flun Gumerov, President of the Union of Precious Metals and Gems Market Participants. He believes that the new technique will have a positive effect on the Russian jewelry industry: “The matter is that our law on precious metals, to put it mildly, is far from being perfect. The current situation is that imported jewelry items come to us without a hallmark of a manufacturing country, and we have to hallmark such items here. The identification of jewelry items by way of a microchip would significantly speed up the process and make it cheaper. The whole world goes this way and we can not lag behind, so it is the right time to raise the question about new marking techniques.”
Within the framework of this “round-table discussion”, the new technique was presented and offered to replace the traditional hallmark stamped on metal. The technique implies that all the information read out from an individual jewelry item, including its photo, is one time entered automatically into its WORM RFID-tag during manufacturing or customs clearing. The WORM (Write Once Read Many) memory card is a tag designed for a single entry and repeated read-out of information. The tags are supplied by a manufacturer without any user data in the memory. Required information is entered by a user only once. If it is necessary to change the data, a new tag is needed. A serial number is added by the Assay Chamber, a state regulator, if it is necessary. After a RFID-tag is written, the summarized data about an individual jewelry item is immediately sent on-line to the Assay Chamber, where they are introduced into a dedicated electronic database.
According to Vladimir Zboikov, the author of the project, advantages of this technique are clear to all players of the jewelry market: “This technique is beneficial for any country because, first of all, it will result in eliminating criminal aspects in the precious metals and gems markets, a significant part of the shadow and smuggling jewelry markets and it will reduce the possibility of using jewelry to finance terrorism, etc. After all, every jewelry item bearing such a microchip is automatically entered into a common database, and it can easily be tracked any time. The FRID technique, if introduced on a mandatory basis at the legislative level, will ensure a sharp increase in fiscal revenues from the jewelry industry and jewelry imports. This technique gives a possibility to business to control the turnover of jewelry products inside an enterprise, as well as improve logistics and transactions control. Tag production costs are minor. They could be manufactured at the Russian factory “Micron” at a cost of 3-5 rubles per piece. Buyers will be able to get full information about a jewelry item, its manufacturer, etc. - maximum information can be written on this microchip. Thus, a RFID-tag can be a way to protect from fraud”.
The disadvantages of this technique were voiced by Boris Borisov, First Deputy Chairman of the Assay Chamber: “This technique is not a novelty. It has been used in trade for a long time, such tags can be seen, for example, on licensed CDs or books. We have examined the issue and come to the conclusion that a RFID-tag has more cons than pros. First, a hallmark stamped on metal is a standard raised image. It is very difficult to change it so that one wouldn’t notice it. But a tag can be easily torn off. Then a ‘naked item’ could appear on the market without any identification. In this case, is it possible to control the turnover in the jewelry market? I doubt it very much. The price of a tag is not decisive. To make the technique working, a lot of expensive equipment will be required for reading data, transferring them to databases, etc. All this is without taking into account the salaries of specialists who will work with the equipment, check it for viruses that are really very dangerous for this technique. And besides, tags would undermine buyers' confidence in jewelry – it turns out that if I buy and wear a ring with a microchip, someone is able to trace me. This resembles Orwell’s “Big Brother looking at you”. Who would like this? In principle, I am for new technologies. But I am against half-baked methods of using them. A hallmark on metal is a generally accepted code and even an ignorant person can use a magnifier to see what it means. And it is more difficult to fake it than a tag with a microchip.”
So, the opinions were divided. It is noteworthy that the arguments of both the proponents and opponents of RFID-tags on jewelry items are weighty enough, so it is most likely that in the nearest future Russian jewelry stores will display showcases graced with jewelry pieces bearing good old hallmarks.
Galina Semyonova, Rough&Polished, Moscow
