Mission and Statute of the Assay Office

The mission of the AO is to protect the legitimate interests of both consumers and traders of precious metals articles.

The Assay Office of the Slovak Republic was established by the provisions of the Hallmarking Act adopted by the National Council of the Slovak Republic.

The Assay Office of the Slovak Republic performs state administration in the field of ​​marking and testing of precious metals.
The marking and testing of precious metals articles is regulated by Act no. 94/2013 (The Hallmarking Act) and related decrees.

Pursuant to the provisions of the Hallmarking Act, the Assay Office:

• performs hallmarking control,
• performs a market surveillance,
• assigns, recognizes and revokes responsibility marks,
• verifies the fineness of dental precious metals alloys and coin minting alloys ,
• verifies or otherwise ascertains the fineness of precious metal articles,
• upon request performs the identification of precious stones,
• issues and withdraws certificates of professional competence(hereinafter referred to as "certificates") for manufacturers of precious metal alloys,
• maintains a list of registered alloys and issues a certificate of registration of jewellery alloys,
• maintains a register of producers and traders of precious metals articles and precious stones(hereinafter referred to as the "register"),
• upon request, performs expert activities in the field of marking, testing and analytical chemistry of precious metals, and in the field of precious stones,
• comments on drafting of Slovak technical standards in the field of testing and analytical chemistry of precious metals,
• imposes fines in the first instance,
• takes measures in accordance with a special regulations.

The Assay Office is a member of the Convention on the Control and Marking of Articles of Precious Metals and regularly attends meetings of the Convention´s Standing comitee.

The Assay Office represents the Slovak Republic at meetings of the Assay Offices of the V 4 countries and meetings of the Assay Council of the Slovak and Czech Assay Offices within the existing hallmarking cooperation.