How to Check Gold Purity in the UAE

In the UAE you check gold purity in three steps. First read the hallmark and the invoice, which cost nothing. Then, in Dubai, use the self-service purity device in the Gold Souk, which Dubai Municipality says gives a result in under a minute.¹² For a formal report, take the piece to the Dubai Central Laboratory, which lists gemstone and precious metal testing among its services.⁴ This guide explains each option, what an XRF test measures, and which tests we could not confirm.

<1 min

for a result from Dubai Municipality's self-service purity device

3 of 8

Dubai gold buyers we read name XRF as their test

1 day

for a lab report through the Gold Souq sample point announced in 2023, instead of seven

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for an XRF fineness reading, says Assay Office London

Start with the hallmark and the paperwork

A gold piece sold in the UAE must carry the official hallmark or a recognised foreign one, or an identification card if it is too small to stamp.⁸ The fineness number in the hallmark is the purity the seller declares: 916 for 22 karat, 875 for 21 karat, 750 for 18 karat. Our guide on what 916 gold means shows the full table and the falcon mark used for gold.

The paperwork is the second check. The Dubai Jewellery Group (DJG) tells shoppers to check the symbols, the purity mark and the product information, and to ask for a full invoice with the jeweller's stamp.⁹ Visit Dubai adds that dealers must give a digital authentication certificate on request, showing the karats, the weight of gold, the weight of the stones and the cost of the labour.¹⁰

Why one karat matters: the same 10 grams are worth a different amount at each purity. Today's values at the DJG rate:

Weight	22K, AED	21K, AED	18K, AED
10 g	4,335.00	4,155.00	3,562.50

Gold purity chart: karat, fineness and percentage

Gold purity is written in two ways. Karat counts parts of gold in 24; fineness counts parts in 1 000. To convert, divide the karat by 24 and multiply by 1 000: DJG works it through for 22 karat, which gives a fineness of .9166.¹¹ UAE law sets the legal fineness standards for gold jewellery:⁸

Karat	Fineness mark	Pure gold
24K	999	99.9%
22K	916	91.6%
21K	875	87.5%
18K	750	75%
16K	666	66.6%
14K	583	58.3%
12K	500	50%

So the 22K gold purity percentage is 91.6%, and 750 purity gold means 18 karat, three quarters gold. A 14K piece hallmarked abroad under the international Hallmarking Convention reads 585 rather than 583; the Convention's gold finenesses are 375, 585, 750, 916 and 999.¹⁶

The self-check device in the Gold Souk

DJG says the Dubai Gold Souk has the world's first gold purity self-check kiosk, so shoppers can verify the purity of their jewellery themselves.¹ Dubai Municipality announced the device on 14 October 2025. According to its announcement:

• It was developed for Dubai Municipality under the supervision of a technical team from the Dubai Central Laboratory, together with the Dubai Gold and Jewellery Group.²
• It tests the purity of gold, silver and platinum, works without staff, and uses spectroscopic analysis, X-ray technology and artificial intelligence.²
• It gives results in under one minute.²
• The first device was to go into the Gold Souk in Deira, as the start of a phased rollout across the emirate.²

Testing at the Dubai Central Laboratory

The Dubai Central Laboratory is part of Dubai Municipality. Its page lists gemstone and precious metal testing among its services, and a drive-through where you can hand in samples without leaving your car.⁴

Address

Umm Hurair Road, Al Karama, Dubai.⁴

Hours

Monday to Thursday 7:30 AM to 3:30 PM, Friday 7:30 AM to 12 PM.⁴

Gold Souq sample point

In January 2023 Dubai Municipality signed an agreement with the Dubai Gold and Jewellery Group for a place in the Gold Souq to receive gold samples, so that merchants and individuals would not need to take them to Karama. Test reports were to take one working day instead of seven.³

We found no published fee or booking procedure for an individual's gold test on the laboratory's pages, and no recent confirmation that the Gold Souq sample point is running. Call the laboratory before you go, and ask what kind of report you will receive.

The official test methods

The Executive Regulations of the UAE hallmarking law name the standards that set the test, sampling and examination methods for the purity of precious metal articles. For gold jewellery the list includes a method for the determination of gold by cupellation, also called fire assay.⁷ Under the law, the hallmarking body is the one competent to determine the share of pure metal in an article.⁸

What an XRF test is

XRF stands for X-ray fluorescence. Sheffield Assay Office, one of the four UK assay offices, explains it: X-rays hit the atoms of the metal, and the atoms give off secondary X-rays whose energies are characteristic of each element. A detector measures them, and the strength of each signal depends on how much of that element is present.⁶

• It does not damage the piece. Assay Office London calls XRF entirely non-destructive and says it gives the fineness in less than 30 seconds.⁵
• It is calibrated. Accuracy improves when the instrument is calibrated with certified reference materials close to the sample tested.⁶ If a shop or buyer offers a test on a "gold purity testing machine" or "analyser", ask whether it is XRF, when it was last calibrated, and whether you can see the reading.
• It can test small parts. The beam can be narrowed to a spot as small as 0.3 mm.⁶
• The surface matters. Assay Office London says it is occasionally necessary to remove the surface layer to find the alloy underneath.⁵ DJG notes that a colour applied by electroplating is only a surface finish.¹¹ White gold, for example, is often plated with rhodium.¹⁷ Ask whether a plated piece, such as rhodium-plated white gold, needs more than a surface reading.

Gold buyers use the same method. Of eight Dubai buyers whose published terms we read, three name XRF as their test, and three say they test the gold in front of you.^12131415 If you are selling, read the steps for selling gold in Dubai, or see the gold buyers in the UAE.

Tests that take metal from the piece

Assay offices also use older methods. Assay Office London lists touchstone testing, gold cupellation and others, and says that for all of them except touch testing a physical sample must be taken from the article by scraping or drawing.⁵

Touchstone test

The article is rubbed lightly on a stone, which leaves a thin streak; chemicals are applied to the streak, and the reaction gives an initial indication of the fineness.⁵

Cupellation (fire assay)

A small refining process that separates the pure gold in an alloy from the base metals, to calculate the gold content.⁵

These are laboratory methods carried out by trained staff on a sample. They are not a home test.

How to check gold purity at home: what we could not confirm

Home tests for gold are easy to find online. None of the official or laboratory pages we read for this guide recommends one, so we do not describe any here and cannot say how reliable they are. Where an assay office scrapes metal or applies chemicals, it does so on a sample, as part of a laboratory method.⁵ Doing the same at home risks marking a piece you may later want to sell or have tested properly.

If the result does not match the hallmark

Changing an article after hallmarking so that it no longer matches the stamped fineness, and selling articles with counterfeit hallmarks, are crimes under the federal law: imprisonment of no less than two years and/or a fine of AED 500,000 to AED 1,000,000.⁸

1. Keep the evidence. The piece, the invoice with the jeweller's stamp and any test result.⁹
2. Go back to the shop. Show the result and ask for its answer in writing.
3. Complain. For a jewellery shop in Dubai, DJG gives the Dubai Consumer Protection number: 600545555.⁹

To find a jeweller with a fixed address, see the jewellers in the Deira Gold Souk.