Have you ever wondered why we use hallmarks? How do we know how much gold is in our jewelery? Come and find out about the work that the assay office do to determine the composition of the precious metals. See how they use chemical and spectroscopic techniques to check the purity of precious metals and analyse levels of nickel, lead and cadmium to make sure they are within safe limits. Learn about the cutting-edge techniques that they are developing to determine purity of non-precious metals. Come and find out about a different side to chemical analysis.