---
title: "House clearance: the gold and silver to pull out before the skip"
description: "Clearing a house? The gold and silver to pull out of the bags, where it hides, and how to post a mixed lot. Photos first tell you if it is worth sending."
canonical: "https://assaypost.co.uk/house-clearance-gold-and-silver"
modified: "2026-10-01"
language: "en-GB"
publisher: "Assaypost"
---

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

Updated 1 October 2026.

Much of what looks like silver in a house is plate, and the gold is often scattered well beyond the jewellery box. A few photographs, or a phone call to describe what you have found, give you a rough idea of whether a bag is worth posting before you pack it.

**In short:** A house clearance usually produces one mixed bag: broken chain, odd earrings, a canteen that may be plate, a few coins and things nobody can name. Pull those out and photograph them. If the reply says the bag is worth posting, send it without sorting further. Every piece is numbered, weighed and checked for its metal, so plate and sterling are separated here, and one written offer is made for everything you send.

## 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.

### Pull it out

- Anything stamped 375, 585, 750, 800, 830, 835, 916, 925, 950, 958 or 999, or an older 9, 12, 15, 18 or 22.
- Anything that feels heavier in the hand than its size suggests.
- Cutlery with a small walking lion on it, and any canteen still in its box.
- Coins of any kind, above all small gold ones with a horse and rider on the back. Do not clean them.
- Watch cases, pocket and wrist, running or not.
- Broken chain, single earrings, clasps, the small rings from chains, and the debris at the bottom of a jewellery box.
- Dental gold, in whatever it is wrapped in.
- Thimbles, napkin rings, vesta cases, cigarette cases, christening mugs, small photograph frames.
- Medals and badges, uncleaned and on their ribbons: [a named medal group should never be sold as scrap](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/war-medals-badges-and-regimental-silver).
- Anything you cannot identify at all. That is what the photographs are for.

### Leave it out of the parcel

- Anything marked EPNS, A1, EP, silver on copper or silver plate. Plate is not bought.
- Watch cases marked GF, RG, rolled gold or a fraction such as 1/20 12K.
- Stainless steel cutlery with no hallmark on the handle. A silver-handled knife has a steel blade, so read the handle, not the blade.
- Costume jewellery. If it carries a designer's name, keep it for a different sale.
- Brass, copper, pewter and chrome, including the candlesticks that turn out to be one of them.
- Gilt that has worn through to a grey or yellow base on the high points.
- Anything a fridge magnet grips all over. A pull only at a clasp or a pin is normal.
- Cutlery with no mark at all, which is usually plate or steel. Old silver can be worn smooth, so if a piece looks old or hand-made, photograph it and ask.
- Anything that might be ivory: a knife handle, a carved brooch, the insulators on a teapot. Photograph it and do not post it; [the ivory guide](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/ivory-and-the-pieces-you-cannot-sell) explains why.

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](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/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](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/a-box-of-jewellery-you-cannot-identify) has a few simple checks. The guide to [what to have looked at before you sell](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/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 drawer**: Crowns 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 tin**: Snapped chain, one stud earring, a bent ring, a St Christopher with the loop gone. Small broken pieces often end up here.
- **The bathroom cabinet**: A 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 shed**: Cigarette 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 box**: Thimbles, needle cases and small sewing tools. Often silver, and easily lost in a bin bag.
- **The loft and the top of the wardrobe**: A 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 desk**: Medals, a sovereign in a coin purse, a signet in an envelope, cufflinks in a matchbox. Check every small drawer and envelope.

When the house belonged to your own parent, the job is different, and usually slower. [Clearing a parent's house](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/clearing-a-parents-house-gold-and-silver) is written for a family doing it themselves, and [the printable estate inventory](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/estate-jewellery-and-silver-inventory) gives the executor a record of what came out of each room.

## 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 mark**: A 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](https://assaypost.co.uk/glossary#hallmark).
2. **Put a magnet on it**: A 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](https://assaypost.co.uk/testing-and-xrf) 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](https://assaypost.co.uk/sell-gold) sets out what decides its worth.

## Sending a mixed lot

1. **Photograph the pile**: Photograph 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](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#clause-8-5)).
2. **One bag to a property**: Keep 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](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#clause-3-3)).
3. **Leave the unsure in**: Do 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 sending**: A 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](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#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 move**: Small 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](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/posting-gold-and-silver-safely) has the packing detail.
6. **Keep the receipt**: Hand 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](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#clause-7-3)). See [posting safely and cover](https://assaypost.co.uk/security-and-insurance).

## What happens when the bag is tipped out

The parcel is matched to your reference and photographed before it is opened ([clause 8.1](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#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](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#clause-8-2) and [8.3](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#clause-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](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#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](https://assaypost.co.uk/how-it-works) follows a parcel the whole way through, and [what we buy](https://assaypost.co.uk/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 post**: Send 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 itemised**: Every 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 lot**: One amount for everything you send, in writing, with every item on it.
4. **Nothing is sold until you say yes**: You 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](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#clause-6-2)). That matters most when you are clearing on somebody else's instructions.
5. **Free tracked return**: Say no and everything comes home by tracked, signed-for post at our cost, plate and all ([clause 6.3](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#clause-6-3)).
6. **Worth more whole? We say so**: The 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 it**: One 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 property**: Ask 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 once**: If 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](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#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](https://assaypost.co.uk/responsible-sourcing-and-aml).
- **Know which pages to hand over**: When a family asks what you did with the contents, our [page for executors](https://assaypost.co.uk/probate-and-estate-jewellery) and our [offers, returns and payment](https://assaypost.co.uk/offers-returns-and-payment) page answer most of the questions in writing. If the clearance follows a death, [inherited jewellery](https://assaypost.co.uk/inherited-jewellery) is the page for the family and [selling jewellery before probate is granted](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/selling-jewellery-before-probate-is-granted) the one for the executor. [Dividing jewellery between beneficiaries](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/dividing-jewellery-between-beneficiaries) helps when the family has not agreed who has what.

Worth reading alongside: [silver cutlery and flatware](https://assaypost.co.uk/what-we-buy/silver-cutlery-and-flatware) for canteens and patterns, and [weighted and loaded silver](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/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](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/tax-when-you-sell-inherited-gold-and-coins) is the page for whoever inherits them.

## Questions clearers ask

### Most of my bag is probably plate. Is it worth sending at all?

Send photographs first and you will be told, before anything is packed, whether there looks to be enough in it to post. With a clearance lot a handful of clear photographs can tell a person a good deal, and if the answer is no you have saved the packing.

### What happens to the parts that are worth nothing?

They are listed as not bought, with a word on why (plated, base metal, nothing recoverable), left out of the offer and sent back to you with anything else you decline ([clause 11.1](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#clause-11-1)). Nothing is thrown away on your behalf, and nothing is kept without being listed.

### A clearance bag is heavy. Is there a weight limit?

Give a rough weight when you are ready to post and the service is chosen to suit it, or the lot is split across more than one parcel. If it is split, ask in writing for the parcels to be treated as one lot ([clause 3.3](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#clause-3-3)). [Posting gold and silver safely](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/posting-gold-and-silver-safely) covers packing a heavy mixed lot.

### Is it safe to post a bag like this?

Before posting to any buyer, run the checks in our guide to [checking a postal gold buyer](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/how-to-check-a-postal-gold-buyer). We arrange the postage with you and confirm the service and its cover in writing before anything is sent. On postage we arrange, any loss in transit is ours, going and coming back ([clause 7.2](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#clause-7-2)). A lost parcel is paid for at what the things were worth, whatever the carrier's limit ([clauses 12.2](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#clause-12-2) and [12.4](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#clause-12-4)).

### Do you want the costume jewellery as well?

It is not bought, because it is not precious metal. You do not have to pick it out: if it travels in the parcel, it is listed and returned with anything else not bought. It is still worth separating rather than binning: a signed piece by a known costume house has its own market, and gold chain sometimes hides in a tangle of gilt beads.

### Should I clean it up first?

No. Polishing takes metal and value off old silver, dips strip the darkening that gives a piece its age, and forcing a knotted chain apart can snap it. Tarnish, dust and tangles cost you nothing. [Cleaning and polishing before you sell](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/cleaning-and-polishing-before-you-sell) explains why.

## Start with photographs

- [Send your photos on WhatsApp](https://wa.me/447369296063?text=Hello.%20I'm%20clearing%20a%20house%20and%20I've%20found%20some%20gold%20and%20silver.%20Sending%20photos%20now.)
- [How it works](https://assaypost.co.uk/how-it-works)
- Telephone [07369 296063](tel:+447369296063), 6am to 10pm, seven days a week