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 tell you what you have. The glossary covers the words.
No obligation. Decline and it all comes back free; ask for part of it back and a fresh offer is made for the rest.
Illustration Computer-generated, 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.
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
Nobody can tell you anything useful about a heap. Sort it first, then find the pieces that should not be in the parcel at all: medals, ivory, and anything worth more whole.
- A box of jewellery you cannot identify: where to startTangled chains, single earrings and things you have never been able to name. Sort it first; nobody can value a heap.7 min
- What to keep back: the pieces worth having looked at properly firstFour kinds of thing regularly beat their metal. Here is how to pick them 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. Most are plate or base metal, and the ones that are not are easy to miss.12 min
- War medals, badges and regimental silver: why a medal group is not scrapA named medal group belongs with a medal specialist, not a metal buyer. How to read one and trace the person who earned it.12 min
- Ivory handles, insulators and inlay: the pieces you cannot simply sellA teapot with ivory insulators is not an ordinary sale. What the law allows, and why the piece comes back to you whole.10 min
- Should you clean or polish gold and silver before you sell it?Tarnish is not dirt. The polishing cloth takes metal off the high points, which is where the marks are.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 instruments can and cannot settle.
- Reading UK hallmarks on gold, silver, platinum and palladiumA hallmark is an independent test you can read with a loupe. Here is what each mark means and how much weight to give it.9 min
- How to test gold at home: which checks mean something, and which will damage itFour checks that tell you something, seven that do not, and two that will mark the piece you are testing.10 min
- Gold plated, rolled gold, gold-filled and vermeil comparedFour things that look like gold from across a room. Only one of them, vermeil, has a precious metal under the gilding.8 min
- Stones, clasps and the parts of a piece that are not metalAlmost nothing arrives as plain metal. What is not metal in a piece, how its weight is left out, and how to keep your stones.7 min
- XRF testing: what it measures, what it cannot prove, and how a reading becomes a finenessXRF is quick, clean and reads only the surface. What it can settle, what it cannot, and how a reading is reconciled with the mark.9 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. A five-signal checklist tells you which you have.8 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 is the exception collectors look for.9 min
- Weighted and loaded silver: why candlesticks, trophies and knife handles weigh more than their silverA heavy candlestick is mostly pitch and a steel rod. How the silver shell is assessed, and why its weight is the wrong place to start.7 min
- Selling sovereigns without losing the premiumA sovereign is usually worth more as a coin than as gold. How to make sure yours is not treated as a bangle.9 min
- Dental gold: how crowns, bridges and inlays are testedTwo crowns that look the same can hold very different alloys. How each one is weighed, tested and written down.7 min
Estates, posting and deciding
How to check any buyer, what an executor should do before probate, how to share a box out fairly, which kind of valuation you actually need, the tax position on an inherited lot, why identity is checked, how to pack a parcel, what happens if it goes astray, and what happens when you say no.
- 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.12 min
- Selling jewellery as an executor: what to do before probate is grantedThe grant takes weeks and the house often cannot wait. What is safe to do in the meantime, and what is not.6 min
- Dividing jewellery between beneficiaries: what to keep, give and sellWho gets the ring is rarely about money. A written list, a fair order of work and agreed values settle most of it before it starts.13 min
- Valuation, appraisal or offer: which one you actually needAn insurer, an estate, a saleroom and a buyer all produce a number. Only one of them answers your question.9 min
- Selling inherited gold, silver and coins: the tax position in plain termsWritten for someone who has inherited a tin of sovereigns, not for an investor who bought bullion last year.10 min
- Identity and provenance checks when you sell gold or silverBeing asked for ID to sell your own jewellery feels intrusive. This is what is asked, when, and why it protects you too.8 min
- Posting gold and silver safelyHanding a parcel of gold over a Post Office counter is the moment most sellers hesitate. This is how to pack, cover and track it.9 min
- If your parcel is lost or damaged in the postThe question most sellers have before posting: what happens, and whose problem it is, if a parcel goes wrong.10 min
- Declining an offer and getting your items backOnce the parcel has gone, the choice has not. Say no and it all comes back free; ask for a piece back and you get a fresh offer for the rest.8 min
Not sure what you have? Start with photographs.
Photograph the lot: the tangled chains, the single earrings, the canteen nobody uses, the bits you cannot identify. Send it over and you get a rough idea back, with no pressure of any kind. Post it afterwards if you want to, or do not.
Nothing is sold until you say yes. Decline and it all comes back by tracked post, free; ask for part of it back and a fresh offer is made for the rest.
If a piece is worth more than its metal
A signed brooch, a date-run sovereign, a watch that still runs, a piece of early silver: anything that looks worth more whole is flagged to you before it is treated as metal, and you can take it back at that point.