Library
Guides to identifying gold, silver and plate
For the person holding a box they cannot identify. Each guide starts with a short answer, says what the marks and the tests actually settle, and says plainly when this is the wrong route for a piece. Nothing here prices anything: send photographs and a person will give you a rough idea of what your pieces appear to be. The glossary covers the words, and selling gold by post covers the sale itself.
You do not need to know what it is called to ask.
Illustration Computer-generated. Not our bench and not a customer’s lot.
In short
These guides help an executor, someone who has inherited a few pieces, someone clearing a house or a first-time seller work out what is in a box of gold, silver or jewellery, what is worth more than its metal, and what to do next. Pick the path below that sounds like you and read its guides in order.
Where to start
You are the executor
A parent or relative has died and the jewellery, silver and coins are part of an estate you are responsible for.
You have inherited a few pieces
The estate is settled or there never was one, and a ring, a watch or a tin of coins is now yours to keep or sell.
You are clearing a house
There is a drawer, a bag or a biscuit tin of mixed metal, and nobody knows what any of it is. If you are selling for somebody else, read identity and provenance checks first.
You have never sold gold before
You want to know how selling by post works, and what protects you, before anything leaves the house.
Start with the box
You do not need to sort a box before asking about it. Photograph it first, then find the pieces that should not be in the parcel at all: medals, ivory, and anything that may be worth more whole.
- A box of jewellery you cannot identify: where to startTangled chains, odd earrings and pieces nobody can name: how to sort them, what to check and which marks to photograph.7 min
- What to keep back: the pieces worth having looked at properly firstFour kinds of thing often beat their metal, and most can be picked out of a box before anything is posted.9 min
- Small gold and silver objects: cases, pens, thimbles and chainsThe drawer of small things that are not jewellery. Many are plate or base metal, and the solid ones are easy to miss.12 min
- War medals, badges and regimental silver: why a medal group is not scrapA named medal group is a record of one person's service, and its right home is with a medal specialist.12 min
- Ivory handles, insulators and inlay: the pieces you cannot simply sellWhat the Ivory Act allows for silver with ivory handles, insulators or finials, and why we send such a piece back whole.10 min
- Should you clean or polish gold and silver before you sell it?Tarnished silver and dull coins are best sent as they are. What polishing removes, and the few things worth doing instead.6 min
Reading what you have
What the marks mean, what is solid and what is a coating, what in a piece is not metal and is left out of the weight, and what the tests can and cannot settle.
- Reading UK hallmarks on gold, silver, platinum and palladiumA hallmark records an independent test. You can read it with a magnifying glass once you know what each mark means and how far to trust it.10 min
- How to test gold at home: which checks mean something, and which will damage itWhich kitchen-table checks tell you something about a piece of gold, and which folk tests tell you nothing or mark it.11 min
- Gold plated, rolled gold, gold-filled and vermeil comparedHow plated, rolled gold, gold-filled and vermeil pieces are made, how to tell them apart, and which of them we buy.8 min
- Stones, clasps and the parts of a piece that are not metalAlmost nothing arrives as plain metal. Stones, springs and fillings are left out of the weight, and a stone is never removed without your written agreement.7 min
- XRF testing: what it can and cannot tell you about gold and silverXRF reads only the surface of a piece, so a reading is never relied on without the mark, the weight and other checks.10 min
Hallmarks, metal by metal
The hallmarks guide above covers the whole system. These three go further on the questions people bring most often: what the number on a gold ring means, whether a piece is sterling or plate, and how to read the year from a date letter.
- Gold hallmarks: what 375, 585, 750 and 916 mean on your jewelleryThe number on a gold ring is the share of gold in a thousand parts, and it is easy to tell from a plating stamp once you know how.8 min
- Silver hallmarks: telling sterling from Britannia, continental silver and platePlenty of the silver-looking things in a house are plate. The marks usually tell you which are not, if you know where to look.7 min
- Hallmark date letters: how to date a piece of silver or gold from its marksHow to read the single letter in a row of hallmarks, and the other marks that narrow down when a piece was made.7 min
Silver, coins and dental work
The parts of a household box that are not ordinary jewellery. What is different about silver, about coins and about dental work, and how each of them is judged.
- Antique silver or scrap silver, and how to tell the differenceMost old silver is worth its metal. A few pieces are worth much more, and five signals help you spot them.9 min
- Silver plate: EPNS, A1, EPBM and Sheffield plate, and what each is worthEPNS, A1 and EPBM hold no silver worth recovering. Old Sheffield Plate and some named electroplate are what collectors look for.9 min
- Weighted and loaded silver: why candlesticks, trophies and knife handles weigh more than their silverMany heavy candlesticks are mostly filling and a steel rod, with the silver only in a thin outer shell.7 min
- Selling sovereigns without losing the premiumHow to read a sovereign's date, portrait, reverse and mint mark, and when to ask a coin dealer before selling it.9 min
- Dental gold: how crowns, bridges and inlays are testedTwo crowns that look alike can be very different alloys. What can be established about each one, and what cannot.7 min
Estates, posting and deciding
Everything around the sale itself: what an executor may do and when, how a family shares a box out fairly, which valuation and which tax rules apply, when a sale may need reporting, and what happens to a parcel from posting to a free return.
- How to check a postal gold buyer before you send anythingA few public registers and one set of terms tell you most of what you need before jewellery goes in the post to strangers.13 min
- Clearing a parent's house: where the gold and silver usually isWhere small gold and silver turns up in a family home, what to set aside, and what to agree before a clearance firm comes in.8 min
- Selling jewellery as an executor: what to do before probate is grantedThe grant can take weeks or months and the house often cannot wait. What is safe to do in the meantime, and what is not.7 min
- Estate inventory sheet for jewellery, silver, watches and coinsA free sheet to print: one row for each piece of jewellery, silver, watch or coin, and what to write in each column.4 min
- Dividing jewellery between beneficiaries: what to keep, give and sellA written list, a fair order of work and agreed values settle most questions about who gets what before they start.14 min
- Valuation, appraisal or offer: which one you actually needAn insurer, an estate, a saleroom and a buyer all produce a number, each for a different purpose.9 min
- Where to sell inherited jewellery and silver: auction, dealer, jeweller, marketplace or metal buyerMost inherited boxes are best split between two or three routes, each suited to different pieces.7 min
- Probate valuation of jewellery and silver: what the estate needs, and who provides itThe estate needs a figure as at the date of death, and no buyer's offer can stand in for it.7 min
- Selling inherited gold, silver and coins: the tax position in plain termsFor someone who has inherited a tin of sovereigns or a parent's jewellery, rather than an investor who bought bullion last year.10 min
- Selling gold in the UK: what gets reported, and who reports itNo buyer has to report your sale because of its size. What you may have to tell HMRC yourself, and the rules that apply to buyers and platforms.8 min
- Identity and provenance checks when you sell gold or silverWhat a gold buyer asks for before paying you, when it asks, how inherited items are handled, and what happens if one is held.10 min
- Posting gold and silver safelyHow to list, pack and post gold and silver so it arrives intact, and who carries the risk while it travels.9 min
- If your parcel is lost or damaged in the postWhat happens, and who deals with it, if a parcel of gold or silver goes missing or arrives damaged.10 min
- Declining an offer and getting your items backPosting the parcel does not commit you. Say no and it all comes back free, or keep some pieces back and get a fresh offer for the rest.8 min
Still not sure where your pieces fit?
You do not need the right word for what you have. Photograph it and send it. A person writes back with what it seems to be, and which guide to read next.
Nothing is sold until you say yes. Say no and everything comes back by tracked, signed-for post at our cost.
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