House clearance: the gold and silver to pull out before the skip

The sort

Make two piles in the room. Anything you are unsure about goes in the first: an unidentified piece costs nothing to include, because anything we do not buy comes back to you at our cost, and throwing it away could cost a good deal.

Leaving something out of the parcel is not the same as throwing it away. Old Sheffield plate (silver fused onto copper, made before electroplating), good electroplate, early brass and pewter, and gold-filled watches by good makers can all sell at auction, so photograph anything that looks old or well made and ask. The second list also holds the common disappointments. A canteen of EPNS in a fitted oak box looks very like a sterling one, but its silver is a thin skin that cannot be recovered. Silver plate, EPNS, A1 and Sheffield plate shows how to spot it before you carry the box out.

If a whole jewellery box turns up, the guide to a box of jewellery you cannot identify has a few simple checks. The guide to what to have looked at before you sell names the kinds of object to set aside before anyone treats them as metal.

Where it actually is

In a house being cleared, the gold and silver is seldom all in the jewellery box. These are the places worth checking before anything goes in a skip.

• The bedside drawerCrowns and bridgework wrapped in tissue, in a matchbox or a film canister. Dental gold looks like rubbish, which is how it ends up in a bin bag.
• The button tinSnapped chain, one stud earring, a bent ring, a St Christopher with the loop gone. Small broken pieces often end up here.
• The bathroom cabinetA ring in a tooth mug or a soap dish. Also spectacle frames, which are usually rolled gold rather than solid, but are worth a look.
• The garage and the shedCigarette cases, hip flasks, trophies and christening cups, black with tarnish and assumed to be junk. Tarnish is normal on silver and says nothing about what a piece is.
• The sewing boxThimbles, needle cases and small sewing tools. Often silver, and easily lost in a bin bag.
• The loft and the top of the wardrobeA canteen in its fitted box, a tea service in a carrier bag, a christening set nobody used. Keep a set together; a complete set can be worth more than its parts.
• The bureau and the writing deskMedals, a sovereign in a coin purse, a signet in an envelope, cufflinks in a matchbox. Check every small drawer and envelope.

Two quick checks

Neither check proves anything on its own. Both are quick, and together they sort a bag well enough to decide whether it is worth posting.

1. Get light on the markA phone camera held close, with the light from the side, often reads a hallmark better than the eye. You are looking for a three-figure number and a punched symbol beside it. Letters such as EPNS, A1 or GF usually mean plated or filled metal rather than a hallmark.
2. Put a magnet on itA fridge magnet is enough. Gold and silver are not magnetic, so a firm pull means steel somewhere. A pull alone proves nothing, because clasp springs, pins and knife blades are steel on otherwise good pieces, and their weight is left out.

What settles it is weighing and checking each piece here. How items are tested sets out what each method can and cannot establish, including why a surface reading on a plated item can mislead. For the gold in the bag, selling gold by post sets out what decides its worth.

Sending a mixed lot

1. Photograph the pilePhotograph it on a plain surface, in daylight, before it goes in a bag. It takes a minute and gets you a rough idea of whether it is worth posting. If anything is ever in question, your photograph counts as evidence beside ours (clause 8.5).
2. One bag to a propertyKeep each house, or each batch you need to account for separately, in its own bag, labelled, and send it together. A bag that follows on a later day gets its own offer, unless you have asked in writing for the first to wait for it (clause 3.3).
3. Leave the unsure inDo not throw away the things you cannot identify to tidy the parcel. It does not need to arrive sorted, only complete.
4. Say roughly what you are sendingA clearance lot is usually heavier than a jewellery parcel, so give a rough weight and a short description of the contents when you are ready to post (clause 7.4). We arrange the postage with you and confirm the service and its cover in writing before anything is sent.
5. Pack it so it does not moveSmall items in a sealed bag inside the box, not loose; nothing rattling; nothing on the outside that says what is inside. Posting gold and silver safely has the packing detail.
6. Keep the receiptHand it in as agreed when the postage is arranged, and keep the receipt with its tracking number; it speeds a trace. On postage we arrange, the risk in the post is ours, and so is any claim, so losing the receipt costs you nothing (clause 7.3). See posting safely and cover.

What happens when the bag is tipped out

The parcel is matched to your reference and photographed before it is opened (clause 8.1). If the packaging looks tampered with, or the contents are not what you told us, everything stops and you are told first (clauses 8.2 and 8.3).

• Everything is sorted into groups: gold from silver, marked from unmarked, solid from plated, metal from what is not. Nothing is taken apart, cleaned or polished to do it (clause 4.4).
• Each item is numbered and described, and keeps that number through weighing, checking, the offer and either the payment or the return post.
• Weight that is not precious metal is estimated and left out while it is still attached: blades, springs, watch movements, stones, resin, cork, the loading in a candlestick.
• Anything that may be worth more to a specialist, an auction house or a dealer is flagged, and you are told before any offer, so you can take it there.

How it works follows a parcel the whole way through, and what we buy lists the items with the exclusions against each.

What you get back, in order

For a house clearer, asking first and the free return matter most: asking first saves posting a bag of plate, and a free return means a wrong guess costs nothing.

1. Ask before you postSend photographs and a person replies with a rough idea, with no obligation. For a lot that might be all plate, this can save you packing it.
2. Everything is itemisedEvery piece is listed as it comes out of the bag, including the parts we do not buy, so you can see what happened to each one.
3. One written offer for the lotOne amount for everything you send, in writing, with every item on it.
4. Nothing is sold until you say yesYou accept by pressing the accept button on your offer or by saying yes in writing. Opening the offer never accepts it, and nothing ever lapses into a sale (clause 6.2). That matters most when you are clearing on somebody else's instructions.
5. Free tracked returnSay no and everything comes home by tracked, signed-for post at our cost, plate and all (clause 6.3).
6. Worth more whole? We say soThe medal, the signed brooch, the sovereign with a scarce date, the canteen worth more as a canteen: flagged before any offer, so you can take it to a specialist, an auction house or a dealer if it may be worth more there.
7. A person handles itOne person opens your parcel, writes the list and the offer, and answers your questions about it.

If you clear houses every week

There is no account to open and no scheme to join. If you sell to us in the course of a business or for an organisation, say so before you post. The consumer-law rights described in clause 1.5 of the terms belong to consumers, but every promise the terms make (nothing sold until you say yes, a free return of anything you decline, the risk in the post on postage we arrange) is the same for you. We may ask more about where the goods came from, and what authority is needed and whose account is paid are confirmed in writing before you post. Three habits make repeat lots straightforward.

• One reference to a propertyAsk for one reference per house or per batch, rather than per week. Two sources on one reference produce one list, and a list that mixes them is no use to whoever has to account for either.
• Authority settled onceIf you clear for a client, a landlord or an estate, we need the owner's written authority and the owner's identity as well as yours (clause 9.3). Settle it at the start rather than at every parcel, and ask before you post who the payment can go to: it is confirmed in writing, and it is never paid in cash. See responsible sourcing and AML.
• Know which pages to hand overWhen a family asks what you did with the contents, our page for executors and our offers, returns and payment page answer most of the questions in writing. If the clearance follows a death, inherited jewellery is the page for the family and selling jewellery before probate is granted the one for the executor. Dividing jewellery between beneficiaries helps when the family has not agreed who has what.

Worth reading alongside: silver cutlery and flatware for canteens and patterns, and weighted and loaded silver for why a heavy candlestick is mostly not silver. Where a clearance turns up a tin of coins, the tax position on inherited gold and coins is the page for whoever inherits them.