Assay master

DOUG Henry, CEO and Assay Master, said: "We were pleased to play a key role in this carefully planned and executed investigation working with colleagues in Trading Standards and West Midlands Police.

Doug Henry, Birmingham Assay Office's assay master, said: "We are pleased that all parties within the British Hallmarking Council have reached agreement around a very complex issue.

The Queen's Assay Master, the Royal Mint's Graeme Smith, with a coin containing a kilogram of gold

The AnchorCert Group, comprising Assay Office Birmingham, AnchorCert Analytical, AnchorCert Gem Lab, SafeGuard Valuations and AnchorCert Academy, has announced the appointment of Doug Henry MBA as incoming chief executive and assay master.

Chief executive and assay master Stella Layton will leave at the end of March after three years in the post and be succeeded by Doug Henry on an interim basis until a permanent replacement is appointed.

Scott Walter, CEO and Assay Master of Edinburgh Assay Office, also expressed his excitement for the impending launch.

Ashley Carson, assay master at Sheffield Assay Office, said: "Unfortunately we are still seeing traders TAKING advantage of customers' lacK of Knowledge of the buying and selling of gold.

Robert Matthews, the former Royal Mint assay master - the most senior coin tester - said: "If the number keeps increasing at this rate, there will come a point when the Treasury has to decide whether to remint or not."

We hit a busy market with Robert Matthews - former Queen's assay master at the Royal Mint - to find out.

Robert Matthews, formerly the Queen's Assay Master until he retired to become a coin consultant four years ago, told the broadcaster of his concerns: "In 2004, people started refusing to take the South African five rand coin due to concerns about the number of counterfeits, and eventually the coin had to be redesigned and re-circulated.

Robert Matthews, formerly the Queen's Assay Master until he retired to become a coin consultant four years ago, said confidence in coins collapsed in other countries when forgery rates reached similar levels.

Scott Walter - who as Assay Master for Scotland is responsible for monitoring genuine hallmarked gold - said: "Several of these items have been sent to us for testing and we have found not a single trace of gold.