Small gold and silver objects: cases, pens, thimbles and chains

01

The small things that are not jewellery

Clearing a house turns up a second drawer of metal that is not jewellery at all. Spectacle frames in the bathroom cabinet. Fountain pens and propelling pencils in the desk. Cigarette cases, vesta cases and card cases in old jacket pockets. Thimbles in the sewing box, compacts and pill boxes on the dressing table, napkin rings and a christening mug in the sideboard, a watch chain with a fob on it, a card of buttons.

Each of them raises the same three questions. Is it solid gold or silver, or a coat over something else? Which parts of it are not precious metal at all? And would somebody who collects it pay more for it than its metal is worth? The marks often answer the first question, if you know where to look.

• Cases and boxes. Inside the lid, or on the rim where the lid meets the base. Look inside only if the lid opens easily, and never force a catch.
• Pens and pencils. On the cap band, the clip, the end of the barrel, or stamped into the nib itself.
• Spectacle frames. On the inside of the arms or on the bridge.
• Thimbles. In a band round the lower edge, often faint.
• Watch chains. On the bolt ring, the swivel or the bar, and on some chains on every link.
• Mugs and napkin rings. Underneath, or in a line near the rim.

02

Solid, plated, rolled or filled: what the marks say

British law does a good deal of the work here. Under the Hallmarking Act 1973, a business may not describe an unhallmarked article as gold, silver, platinum or palladium unless an exemption applies. It may describe gold as plated or rolled, and the other three metals as plated, provided that word is lettered at least as large as the rest. So when a cigarette case says rolled gold, or a mug says silver plated, the maker was telling you it was not solid.

Marks found on small objects, and what each one means

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The fractions come from American rules, because a great many rolled gold pens and spectacle frames were made for that market. The current US Federal Trade Commission guides treat the term gold filled as fair only for a bonded layer of at least 10ct gold making up at least one twentieth of the weight of the metal in the whole article. Thinner layers are sold as rolled gold plate, with a fraction stating the share, as in 1/40 12 Kt. R.G.P. So 1/10 12K on a pair of spectacles means one tenth of the metal's weight is a 12ct layer, and the rest is base metal. The plated, rolled, filled and vermeil guide explains how each of these is built.

A number on its own is not the warning sign. A British 12ct or 15ct mark on a Victorian watch chain or pencil is solid gold at an older standard. The Goldsmiths' Company Assay Office records that 9ct, 12ct and 15ct were introduced in 1854, and that the 15ct and 12ct standards were cancelled in 1932 and replaced by 14ct. The warning is the letters or the fraction beside the number: 12K G.F., 1/20 12K, R.G.

A missing mark does not mean plate either. Articles of the minimum standard that weigh less than one gram of gold or 7.78 grams of silver do not need a hallmark, and many thimbles and small pieces fall under those weights. Some older objects are exempt by name, as long as they reach the minimum standard: gold pencil cases, lockets, watch chains and thimbles made before 1975, and silver lockets and watch chains made before 1975. An article made before 1950 to the minimum standard, and not altered since the start of 1950, can also be sold as precious metal without a hallmark, if the seller can show its date. An unmarked object is not settled either way until it has been tested, and the hallmarks guide explains the full marks.

03

Object by object: what is usually solid, and what usually is not

Small objects: where solid ones show it, what is often plate, and what is not precious metal

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Pens deserve a second look, because three quite different things on one pen can carry gold marks. A nib stamped 14K, 14ct, 585 or 18K is gold, but it is small, it is tipped with a harder alloy, and it usually sits on a body of plastic. A cap stamped rolled gold or 1/10 12K is a coat of gold over base metal. A cap with a British hallmark is solid. The same pen can have all three. A pen by a maker collectors know, working or not, is often worth more as a pen.

Spectacle frames are among the objects most often mistaken for gold. Rolled gold and gold-filled frames were made in enormous numbers and marked accordingly. Solid gold frames do exist, and carry a hallmark or a carat mark like any other gold, but even then the lenses, pads and screws are not gold.

04

The parts that are not precious metal

Almost every object on this list is a small machine. Something opens, closes, clicks or writes, and the parts that do the work are usually steel, brass, glass or plastic. Leave them where they are. Taking an object apart to post only the metal usually damages it and gains you nothing.

• Springs. In the catch of a cigarette case or compact, in the bolt ring and swivel of a watch chain, and in many pen clips. A magnet pulls at the spring and not at the case, which is a useful check in itself.
• Screws and hinges. Spectacle frames are held together with small screws that are often steel, even on a gold frame.
• Glass, mirrors and lenses. In compacts and spectacles, and in the lids of some pill boxes.
• Mechanisms and bodies. Pencil mechanisms, pen feeds and ink sacs, and the plastic or vulcanite body of a pen.
• Cores. Some thimbles stamped Dorcas were made with a steel core between two layers of silver, so they pull on a magnet even though there is silver in them.
• Panels and stones. Enamel, shell, mother-of-pearl, the hardstone in a seal fob, and ivory. Ivory has rules of its own, and the ivory guide explains them and what happens to such a piece.
• Gilding. The gold-coloured inside of a silver cigarette case, vesta case or snuff box is a thin layer of gold over the silver. It does not make the object gold, and silver under gilding is still silver.

Everything in a parcel is listed, including anything that is not bought. Anything not bought, plated and rolled gold included, is left off the offer and returned to you with anything else you decline, as the terms set out. The stones, clasps and not-metal guide explains how the parts of a piece that are not metal are recorded.

05

When the object matters more than the metal

Small objects were made to be carried, used and given, and many were made with more care than their metal would suggest. Collectors buy them as objects. The signs are the same ones that matter on silverware and jewellery, scaled down.

• A maker's name. On pens and pencils the name on the barrel, the clip or the nib is what collectors look for first. A known silversmith's mark on a case or box matters in the same way.
• Enamel. Enamelled vesta cases, cigarette cases, compacts and pill boxes are collected for the enamel. It is glass fused to the metal, it chips easily and it contains no precious metal, so on good pieces the metal is often the smaller part of what they are worth.
• Age. Georgian snuff boxes and vinaigrettes, Victorian card cases and vesta cases, early propelling pencils. The date letter in a British hallmark gives the year it was hallmarked, and the hallmarks guide shows how to read it.
• Novelty and decoration. Cases made in the shape of something else, card cases with a building or a scene in relief, engine-turned work in good condition.
• A pen kept whole. A fountain pen is a pen first, and collectors buy pens that need repair as well as pens that write. Taking out a gold nib for its metal ends its life as a pen.
• An inscription with a story. A cigarette case presented by a regiment, a ship's company or a club can matter to someone who collects that subject. The war medals guide covers regimental pieces.
• Completeness. Buttons in their fitted box, a christening mug with its spoon, a pen with its matching pencil. Keep sets together.

Assaypost's terms say that where a piece looks worth more whole than as metal, you are told before it is priced as metal. You can also check for yourself first. The checklist in the guide to antique or scrap silver works as well on a card case as on a canteen. Assaypost is a buyer, not a specialist, but a photograph sent before you post lets us tell you which objects look worth keeping back for an auction house or a specialist dealer.

06

Risks with small gold and silver objects

• Plate that looks solid. A heavily gilt or plated case can look exactly like gold or silver. The marks and the colour at worn corners and edges are the first check. A magnet only catches plate over steel or another magnetic base; plate over brass, copper or nickel silver does not pull. If you are not sure, send a photograph and ask.
• Silver that looks like junk. Tarnished silver turns black, and a cigarette case from the back of a garage can look like tin. Tarnish sits on the surface and says nothing about the metal underneath. Do not throw anything away because of its colour.
• Mixed construction. A gold nib on a plastic pen, a steel core inside a silver thimble, a silver lid on a base-metal box. A mark on one part does not speak for the rest.
• Reading half a mark. 12K and 1/10 12K are different claims, and so are 18K and 18K G.P. Read the whole mark, and photograph all of it.
• Cleaning. Do not polish or dip anything. Polishing wears away the marks that identify an object and the surface a collector values. Dips strip the darkening that shows age, and abrasives scratch enamel. The cleaning guide explains why the short answer is not to.
• Forcing things open. Catches, hinges and pen sections break when forced. If a case or compact will not open, photograph the outside and say so.
• Taking things apart. Prising out a nib, a mirror or a stone to send only the metal risks the whole piece. Under Assaypost's terms nothing is dismantled before you accept an offer, and anything that would alter a piece needs your written consent first.
• Losing small things in the post. Thimbles, buttons and nibs slip out of packing easily. Bag small items together and list them, as the posting guide describes.

07

When not to sell for metal

Plated, rolled gold and gold-filled objects are a different case. They are not bought for their metal at all, so posting them gains you nothing. If they arrive, they are listed and sent back. A branded or antique one may still interest a dealer as an object. If you are not sure which pile something belongs in, send a photograph first, and the house clearance page covers what else to pull out of the drawers.