The Swiss PMCA
The Swiss PMCA
Switzerland's Precious Metals Control Act and the federal hallmarking system it administers
The PMCA — Precious Metals Control Act, in German Edelmetallkontrollgesetz — is the federal Swiss law governing the manufacture, marking, and sale of articles containing gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. The current Act dates in its modern form from 1933, with substantial revision in 1995 and continuing technical amendment, and it sits at the centre of one of the most rigorous precious-metal regulatory systems in the world. Articles destined for sale within or export from Switzerland must, where they meet defined thresholds, be assayed and hallmarked by an accredited Swiss assay office before sale.
Scope and structure
The Act covers articles made wholly or partly of gold, silver, platinum, or palladium above defined fineness thresholds — 375 millesimal for gold (9 carat), 800 for silver, 850 for platinum, and 500 for palladium, with the standard commercial finenesses of 750 (18K gold), 950 platinum, and 925 silver as the practical reference points. Articles below the legal minimums cannot be sold under the protected names. The Act regulates manufacturing, retail, and commercial wholesale, and establishes the offences and penalties for misrepresentation, false marking, and unauthorised assay.
Administration is shared between the Swiss Federal Office of Metrology (METAS) at the federal level and the cantonal and federal assay offices that perform the operational assay and hallmarking. Manufacturers and importers must register and obtain a Swiss responsibility mark, which is applied alongside the official assay-office hallmark on each article.
The Swiss responsibility and assay marks
A compliant Swiss-marked article carries two essential marks: the responsibility mark of the manufacturer or importer, registered with the federal authority and unique to that party, and the official assay mark of the assay office that has tested and approved the article. The assay office mark for gold is the Swiss head (the tete de chien for non-precious-metal hallmark contexts is differently used) — historically the Saint Bernard dog head for 18-karat gold and the squirrel head for 14-karat gold, with corresponding marks for platinum and silver. Fineness is indicated by a millesimal number, normally 750 for 18K, 585 for 14K, 950 for platinum, and 925 for silver.
Position in the international system
Switzerland is a contracting party to the Convention on the Control and Marking of Articles of Precious Metals (the Vienna Convention), and articles bearing the Common Control Mark of the Convention are mutually recognised across member states. Swiss assay practice is widely regarded as the international benchmark for rigour, and Swiss-marked articles are accepted without re-assay in most major markets. Comparable systems include the United Kingdom Assay Office network, the French poinçon system, and the Italian provincial assay offices, with the Swiss and British systems most often cited as the standards-setters.
In the trade
For Skyjems and other trade buyers handling Swiss-made or Swiss-imported articles, the PMCA is a substantive assurance: a piece bearing a current Swiss assay mark has been individually tested and verified at point of compliance, with the responsibility mark identifying the manufacturer or importer for traceability. The marking system also supports authentication of pieces re-entering the trade, since the assay office records and the responsibility mark register provide a paper trail. Buyers presented with Swiss-marked articles should verify the marks against current METAS reference and consider professional re-assay only where the marks are obscured, suspicious, or appear to have been tampered with.