Gold Price in United Kingdom Today

Gold jewellery weighing 1 gram or more cannot legally be sold in the UK as "gold" unless it carries an official hallmark struck by one of four assay offices — London, Birmingham, Sheffield or Edinburgh — under the Hallmarking Act 1973. This is a mandatory, government-backed system, not a voluntary industry practice as in some markets: describing an unhallmarked item as gold above that weight threshold is a criminal offence, and the hallmark itself can only be applied by an assay office, never by the manufacturer or retailer directly.

Investment-grade gold carries a VAT exemption that most retail jewellery does not: bars of at least 995 fineness and legal-tender coins of at least 900 fineness minted after 1800 qualify under retained EU-derived legislation, while jewellery and lower-purity pieces remain VAT-liable as normal. The Royal Mint's Sovereign and Britannia are the two coins most UK dealers treat as the default bullion benchmark, though KmalServico's live price reflects the underlying 24K metal value rather than either coin's own premium.

Look for the full hallmark set rather than a single number: fineness is struck in parts-per-thousand -- 375 for 9 carat, 585 for 14 carat, 750 for 18 carat and 916 for 22 carat -- alongside a separate assay-office mark and a sponsor's mark identifying the maker or importer. The mark has to be struck into the metal itself, not printed or engraved after the fact, and pieces under the 1-gram threshold are the only pieces legally allowed to skip it.

Sovereigns and Britannias carry a tax advantage most bullion doesn't: because both are legal tender, HMRC treats any gain on them as fully exempt from Capital Gains Tax, with no cap on the size of the gain. Gold bars and non-UK coins such as Krugerrands don't get that exemption -- they're ordinary chargeable assets, and gains above the £3,000 annual CGT allowance are taxed at 18% or 24% depending on the seller's income tax band. VAT is a separate question entirely, and doesn't apply to investment-grade gold in the first place.