STATEMENT OF BASIS AND PURPOSE: PROPOSED REVISIONS TO THE JEWELRY GUIDES TABLE OF CONTENTS I. BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................. 1 A. The Jewelry Guides................................................................................................................... 1 B. The Jewelry Guides Review ..................................................................................................... 2 C. Outline of this Statement .......................................................................................................... 3 II. GENERAL ISSUES............................................................................................................. 4 A. Benefits and Burdens of the Guides.......................................................................................... 4 1) Comments ........................................................................................................................... 4 2) Analysis............................................................................................................................... 5 B. International Standards ............................................................................................................. 5 1) Comments ........................................................................................................................... 5 2) Analysis............................................................................................................................... 6 C. Industry Compliance ................................................................................................................. 7 1) Comments ........................................................................................................................... 7 2) Analysis............................................................................................................................... 8 D. Consumer and Business Education ........................................................................................... 9 1) Comments ........................................................................................................................... 9 2) Analysis............................................................................................................................. 10 III. SPECIFIC GUIDE ISSUES ............................................................................................... 10 A. Surface Application of Precious Metals ................................................................................. 11 1) Current Guides .................................................................................................................. 11 (a) Gold......................................................................................................................... 11 i (b) Vermeil ................................................................................................................... 14 (c) Silver ....................................................................................................................... 15 2) Comments ......................................................................................................................... 15 (a) Unified Approach for Precious Metal Surface Applications .................................. 16 i. “Plate,” “Plated,” “Electroplate,” and “Electroplated” ........................................... 19 ii. “Heavy Electroplate” and “Heavy Electroplated” .................................................. 24 iii. “Vermeil”.............................................................................................................. 25 iv. “Rolled Plate” ....................................................................................................... 26 v. “Clad” and “Filled” ................................................................................................. 28 vi. “Bonded” .............................................................................................................. 30 vii. “Over” .................................................................................................................. 31 viii. Other Terms ........................................................................................................ 32 (b) Commenters Disagreeing with JVC’s Proposal. ..................................................... 33 3) Analysis and Proposed Guidance...................................................................................... 35 (a) Unqualified Precious Metal Claims Regarding Coated Products ........................... 36 (b) Qualifying Claims for Coated Products .................................................................. 37 i. “Gold Plate(d)”– Any Application Process ............................................................ 39 ii. “Gold Electroplate(d),” “Gold Plate(d)” – Electrolytic Application Process ......... 40 iii. “Heavy Electroplate(d), Heavy Plate(d)” – Electrolytic Application Process ..... 42 iv. “Vermeil” .............................................................................................................. 42 v. “Gold Filled,” “Gold Overlay,” “Gold Plate(d),” and “Rolled Gold Plate” – Mechanical Application Process ............................................................................. 43 vi. Other Terms Used to Describe Surface Applications of Gold .............................. 44 (c) Rhodium Plating Disclosure ................................................................................... 46 ii B. Products Containing More than One Precious Metal ............................................................. 47 1) Current Guides .................................................................................................................. 47 2) Comments ......................................................................................................................... 47 3) Analysis and Proposed Guidance...................................................................................... 48 C. Alloys with Precious Metals in Amounts Below Minimum Thresholds ................................ 48 1) Current Guides .................................................................................................................. 48 (a) Gold......................................................................................................................... 49 (b) Silver ....................................................................................................................... 50 (c) Platinum Group Metals ........................................................................................... 50 2) Comments ......................................................................................................................... 52 (a) Need for Guidance .................................................................................................. 53 (b) Maintaining the Minimum Thresholds ................................................................... 54 (c) JVC proposal ........................................................................................................... 56 i. Disclosing Precious Metal Content ......................................................................... 57 ii. Stamping With a Quality Mark ............................................................................... 57 iii. Expressing Precious Metal Content as a Percentage ............................................ 60 3) Analysis and Proposed Guidance...................................................................................... 63 (a) Products Meeting and Exceeding the Thresholds ................................................... 63 (b) Descriptions and Markings For Certain Below Threshold Products That Meet Consumer Expectations .......................................................................................... 66 (c) Descriptions and Markings For Below-Threshold Alloy Products That Materially Differ From Above-Threshold Alloys .................................................................... 68 D. Describing Gold Quality ......................................................................................................... 72 1) Current Guides .................................................................................................................. 72 iii 2) Comment ........................................................................................................................... 73 3) Analysis............................................................................................................................. 74 E. Palladium ................................................................................................................................ 75 1) Current Guides .................................................................................................................. 75 2) Comment ........................................................................................................................... 75 3) Analysis............................................................................................................................. 77 F. Product Marking ..................................................................................................................... 78 1) Current Guides .................................................................................................................