The Forensic expert kollegium conducts expertise of all types of consumer goods.
Expert practice shows that the quality level of jewelry is formed according to the following criteria:
- types of raw materials used and their quality;
- compliance with the production technology of the product;
- proper care of the product during its maintenance.
At the same time, the determination of metal content, color and purity of a stone, according to the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On precious metals and precious stones”, only lies within the competence of the assay supervision laboratory.
If the production technology of jewelry is violated, obvious (visible) manufacturing defects are formed, which include defects in casting, soldering, fastening of inserts, cutting of stones and structural defects. These defects occur at different stages of manufacturing products and are present in the product at the time of purchase.
During the maintenance of jewelry hidden manufacturing defects may appear, resulting in the loss of not only the appearance, but also the deterioration of operational properties.
Jewelry maintenance is carried out on the basis of the special properties of the materials used, about which the seller is obliged to warn the consumer in writing form. However, in practice there are cases when the maintenance is carried out in violation of the recommendations and the elimination of the consequences requires the restoration of the product in special workshops or production.
Conducting jewelry with traces of use expertise, the specialists of the Forensic expert kollegium use scientifically based methods, which are developed on the basis of the theoretical foundations of jewelry production and regulatory documentation.
The developed methods cover the following stages:
Selection of regulatory documentation for jewelry, instructions, orders, agreements, methods, etc., documents, that regulate quality requirements and control methods. At the same time, the preparation of a research base: measuring instruments and auxiliary means, standard samples and test tools.
- Visual inspection, which should begin with the study of marking data (brands), method of application and location. Information is evaluated according to the criteria of completeness, compliance with the legislation of the Republic of Belarus.
- A visual inspection of a piece of jewelry, which is carried out according to methods that include a set of techniques set forth in the regulatory documentation.
- Microscopic examination of the quality of the materials used, which is determined in accordance with the forensic research allowance of jewelry.
- An experimental study, which is carried out on the basis of its scientific justification, using special equipment.
Thus, during the examination of jewelry with traces of exploitation, both in pre-trial and forensic procedures, the types of classification, diagnostic and situational tasks are solved, expressed in the following most common questions:
- Determine the type and purpose of the presented jewelry.
- Determine the pairing of the presented products (earrings, bracelet parts, etc.).
- Determine the reason for the change in appearance (change in color, shape, etc.) of the garment.
- Determine the cause of defects in the product.
- Determine the conformity of the quality of the jewelry to the requirements of technical regulatory legal acts.
- Determine the cause of the dropout insert.
- Determine the cause of the deformation of the jewelry.
- Determine the compliance of the quality of the jewelry repair with the requirements of STB 52.
- Determine the repairability of a piece of jewelry.
- Determine the correctness of the use of jewelry.
- Determine the reason for the change in the shade of the metal in the jewelry.
You can contact the Forensic expert kollegium on the issues of conducting jewelry expertise at: Minsk, Zhukovskaga St., 11A, 4th floor
or by phone: +375 (17) 317 04 71; +375 (17) 317 04 72; +375 (17) 317 04 73; +375 (17) 317 04 74; +375 (17) 317 04 76; +375 (29) 147 60 11; +375 (44) 588 60 11
© I.Khatskevich
