What To Do With Old Gold Jewellery
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Do you have old jewellery you no longer wear and don't know what to do with? You might have inherited jewellery or have broken jewellery or own pieces that are no longer your style.
Have you thought about having your jewellery remodelled or considered selling your jewellery but don't know where to start? Here's my guide on what to do with your old jewellery you don't wear.
Whatever you decide, my first piece of advice is not to leave your jewellery lying around in a drawer or jewellery box. Jewellery has value and you should think of it in the same way you think of cash. Keep it somewhere secure and safe. You can install a small safe easily in your home or you can store your valuables if you don't wear them regularly in a vault, such as Glasgow Vaults. For around £200 per year, you can have your own safety deposit box that you can access 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Storing your valuables with somewhere like Glasgow Vaults may even bring down the cost of your home insurance. It is a good idea to talk to your insurance company about this if you have a large amount of jewellery named on your policy to see if this would reduce your premiums. Replacing sentimental jewellery if it is stolen is a very upsetting experience so this is definitely something worth considering.
If you have decided not to keep your old jewellery as it is but to remodel it, here's what we advise is the best way to use old jewellery to make something new.
When we remodel jewellery, we use gemstones and sometimes we can use old gold jewellery as a detail in a piece so it retains its sentimental value, but what we don't do is melt down lots of different pieces of gold to make a new item. Why? Because melting different alloys together can cause manufacturing faults that result in a poor quality item. These faults might not show straight away but might appear years after a product is made.
What is an alloy?
It is a combination of different metals that are joined to create a metal that works for the purposes that it is intended. For example, 9ct is one third gold and two thirds other metals. 18ct gold is two thirds gold and one third other metals. Why are metals alloyed instead of being used in their pure state? Gold is a relatively soft metal and unless it is alloyed, it would dent easily and also bend too easily to be worn everyday without losing its shape. Alloying gold or other precious metals also allows jewellery to be sold at different price points with 9ct gold offering a more affordable alternative to 18ct gold.
The science behind creating the best alloys is extremely specialised, carried out by engineers called Metallurgists. The exact quantities of other metals that are added to an alloy are kept secret and are often changed and improved to get better and better results. Some alloys are designed to flow well so they can be heated and poured into a mould. Some are designed to be ductile so they can be drawn down into very thin wire or sheet without becoming brittle.
When various gold pieces from different time periods with varying alloys are melted together, the original magic formula that made them ideal for their intended use is lost. Instead of an optimal alloy, the mix of different metals formed may not function as intended. This can result in metal cracking or having tiny holes that collect bacteria and can lead to problems in the future.
A finished item of jewellery will also have solder joins. Solder has a lower melting point than the alloy it is used in so that it melts before the piece being joined does. When solder is melted down with old gold, it can form pits in the surface and make the metal very brittle. This is a real problem if you want to reuse chains which have a solder join on every link.
When gold is refined to be reused, the pure alloy is extracted. This is an highly technical process which is done on an industrial scale, with large batches of gold refined at the same time. Once the pure gold is extracted from the other metals, new alloys are created and sold for the purpose they are needed for, ie, wire or sheet, casting grain etc.
We guarantee every item that we make will be free from manufacturing faults so we use our own alloys rather than melting down old gold but we do use customer's gemstone or use old jewellery that customers have if the design allows.
We have a remodelling jewellery blog which some of the commissions we have made for customers using their gemstones which will show you some ideas of what is possible.
Our remodelling consultations and estimates are free of charge and we will make suggestions of what will work for your budget and design requirements. It's a fun, relaxing process that we do from our jewellery studio in Ayr. If you live further away and can't visit our studio in person we can do online consultations that work extremely well too.
What do our customers do with the jewellery that we have removed gemstones from for their remodelling commission?
Sometimes we are able to reset a new affordable gemstone into a piece of jewellery that we have removed a diamond from to make use of the old piece of jewellery and sometimes our customers sell the old gold. It can be surprising how much money old and broken pieces of jewellery can add up to.
The first thing to be aware of when you are selling old jewellery for scrap is that you are given no value for the gemstones.
I'm not sure why this is the case and diamonds and other gemstones have value and could be removed by anyone who buys the jewellery, but standard practice is just to weigh the gold and calculate a price per gram for the value. If you have any gemstones in your jewellery that you don't want to give away for free, get them removed before you sell any items for scrap.
The second thing to know is that you don't get less for the item if it is broken or not, so don't pay to fix it or get it polished before selling it for scrap. Selling old jewellery for scrap is the quickest and easiest way to get cash for your jewellery.
The price for gold changes twice a day, at 10.30am and 3pm. Being aware of the daily price is a good idea if you are selling your gold so you can tell if the price you are being offered is good or not. I'll put a price at the end of this blog post that I will update daily so you can check what today's price is both for what the trade customer gets and for what a non trade customer will likely be offered. I'm sharing these prices from the information published by the UK's largest supplier of precious metals to whom we sell our scrap gold.
You will need to look at your gold jewellery and find the hallmark. This is a small stamp that will be inside a ring or on a piece of jewellery, normally at the clasp or back of the piece. Use a magnifying glass or take a photo of it using your phone on the zoom in setting. When you can read the three numbers, you will be able to tell what carat your gold is. 375 means it is 9ct, 750 is 18ct. If you are struggling to understand your hallmark and need some help, you can WhatsApp me a picture and I can help you understand what it means.
Once you have sorted your gold into the correct carat, you can use your kitchen scales to get a rough idea of the weight. Set it to grams. This will only be an approximate weight but it will give you a starting point. Multiply the gram weight by the daily value of the gold by carat and you will have a value that you should be able to get for your old jewellery.
Next you have to find somewhere to sell your gold. The company we use requires you to send your jewellery by post. We do this using Royal Mail Special Delivery as it insures jewellery in transit. They have differing levels of cover that they offer so make sure you choose the amount that covers what you think the value will be. If you have more than £2500 which is the maximum cover they proved per parcel, you should post the items in several packages, ideally on different days.
If you would prefer to sell you gold in person and don't want to use the postal service, you can find a jeweller local to you that has a Metal Dealer's Licence.
This is a special licence issued by the local authority that requires anyone buying and selling gold to keep records and to have scales that are extremely accurate. Their weight of your gold will be more accurate than your kitchen scales.
Well known High Street companies, such as H&T Pawnbrokers or Ramsdens buy and sell gold and so do some independent jewellers, normally those who also deal in second hand jewellery.
Some jewellers will offer less than the price that the company we use offers and some may in fact offer more. Some jewellers will look at the item you have and if they think they could sell it on second hand as a finished piece of jewellery, they may offer you more than the scrap price. It is worth asking the question of how much they will offer you as it costs nothing to ask and armed with the knowledge of how much the daily scrap price is, you will not be taken advantage of.
Selling a piece of jewellery second hand should result in you getting more money for it than selling it for scrap but it could be a lengthly process.
You could list a piece of jewellery on Ebay or Etsy for sale but there is a lot of competition for second hand jewellery and you might never find the right buyer. If you are not in a hurry to sell your jewellery and it is in good condition, you might want to try this before selling it for scrap.
You could also donate any old or broken jewellery to a charity.
Local charities such as the Ayrshire Hospice can use donations of jewellery to fund their vital service.
You could also sell your jewellery at auction.
The auction house should be able to advise you of a realistic price that it will sell for and they will take a percentage of the sale if it is bought. Check what this is before you put the item up for auction and make sure that the reserve price, the lowest the bidding starts at, and the cost of the fees are more than the price you would get for scrap.
If you have coins or gold bullion bars, these are priced differently to gold jewellery and are valued higher as they don't need to be refined.
A good starting place for selling bullion is to get in touch for a free quote from the Royal Mint.
If you have any questions about what to do with your gold jewellery just get in touch so we can help. We don't buy gold or sell second hand jewellery so all of our advice is impartial. If you need prices for other carats of gold or platinum, just get in touch.