Sell platinum and palladium

Three white metals, one appearance

White gold is a gold alloy whitened with palladium, nickel or silver. Almost all of it is finished with a thin rhodium plating, which gives the bright, faintly blue-white surface people associate with platinum. Platinum is naturally a slightly warmer, softer grey, and palladium is a little lighter in colour and much lighter in the hand. Put three new rings side by side and the differences are hard to see.

The confusion matters because these are three different metals with different markets, and being paid as the wrong one is how a seller loses out on a white ring. So nothing here is identified by colour, and every white piece is treated as unknown until a mark or a check says otherwise.

• Platinum engagement rings and wedding bands, usually 950 fine, often with diamond settings
• Palladium wedding bands, common in Britain from about 2010 onwards, at 950 or 500
• Platinum-topped gold from the 1900s to the 1930s: a platinum face fused onto a gold body, and two metals in one piece
• White gold of any carat, which is bought as gold
• Chains, brooch mounts, pin settings and cufflinks in any of the above, which are harder to judge than rings because they are thinner

The orb, the head and the crown

British hallmarking gives each metal its own symbol, struck beside the millesimal number, which gives the fineness in parts per thousand. Since 1999 the symbol has been optional, and the shape of the shield round the number identifies the metal on its own. Gold made before 1975 may show no crown: 9ct and 15ct were marked with the carat and a decimal, such as 9 and .375. The marks are small and they sit inside a ring shank where they have been rubbing against a finger for years, so a magnifier and a good light are worth the trouble. On a chain the mark is usually on the tag beside the clasp.

Hallmark symbols for the white metals

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A ring older than the marking dates above may carry nothing but a maker's stamp such as PLAT, PT950 or simply 950. Imported pieces often carry a stamp of that kind too. Those are the maker's claims. They are often right, and they are still checked. The UK hallmarks guide illustrates each symbol at size.

What weight and wear will tell you at home

Pick up two plain bands of the same size, one platinum and one palladium, and the difference is obvious: platinum is roughly 70 per cent heavier for the same shape. 18ct white gold sits between them, and 9ct white gold weighs about the same as palladium. So an unexpectedly heavy white ring is very likely platinum, and an unexpectedly light one is palladium, 9ct white gold or hollow.

Wear tells the other half of the story. Rhodium plating on white gold rubs off first inside the shank and at the base of a setting, and what shows through is a faintly warm, slightly yellowish grey. Platinum is usually unplated: it is the same metal all the way through and develops a soft matt finish where it has been knocked about. A white ring with a warm tinge where it has worn is usually white gold.

How a white ring is identified here

1. Marks read and photographedUnder magnification, and photographed so you can see what was found. A magnet is tried at the same time. Steel parts respond, and so, faintly, do some nickel white golds and cobalt platinum alloys, so a pull is only a clue.
2. Weighed in air and in waterOn a plain, stone-free band this separates platinum from the others. Palladium and 9ct white gold are close in density, so the marks and other checks decide between them. Stones and hollow shanks make the method unreliable, and where they are present it is not used.
3. XRF: not in use hereX-ray fluorescence (XRF) can report platinum, palladium, gold and rhodium together, but no analyser is in use here, so the methods used for each piece are listed on the offer.
4. Read away from the joinsChecks are made clear of solder joints and setting heads, which are often a different alloy from the shank and would otherwise skew the answer.
5. Two-metal pieces described as twoA platinum head on a gold shank is checked at each part and described as two metals, with the split stated as an estimate. The parts are not separated before you have accepted an offer.

The result goes on your list by name, with how it was established and anything that could not be settled: platinum, marked 950; or white gold, fineness not established without a further test. If a piece turns out to be gold rather than platinum it is still bought, as gold, in the same way as anything on selling gold by post. How items are tested explains what each method can and cannot establish.

Send the whole box, white pieces and all

Sorting white jewellery at home helps little, because the sorting needs the answer it is meant to find. Photograph the white pieces with the yellow ones and send the pictures; a drawer of mixed rings, chains and odd earrings is an ordinary parcel, and separating the metals is our job.

• Leave stones in their settings. Lifting one at home damages the claws, and a stone is never needed out of its setting for us to check the metal.
• Do not have a ring re-plated or polished before sending it; that removes the evidence of wear and a little metal with it.
• If a stone has a certificate, keep it at home and photograph it for us instead. A certificated diamond is often better sold through a jeweller, and we will say so.
• Photograph the pieces you think are costume too. White base metal and real platinum look alike, and the photographs help decide which are worth posting.
• A box of rings is small and can be valuable, so tell us roughly what is in it before you post; posting safely and cover explains how it travels.
• If a ring was a wedding or engagement ring, take whatever time you need before deciding whether to send it; there is no deadline.

A photograph of the inside of a shank is hard to take and worth attempting anyway: hold the ring in good daylight, use the macro setting, take several and send them on WhatsApp to 07369 296063, or ring or text that number to ask how else to send them. Even a blurred picture often shows whether there is a mark there at all. If the box holds yellow gold too, scrap and broken gold jewellery covers the rest of it, and inherited jewellery covers a box that came from a relative.

Platinum pieces that should not be treated as metal

• Signed pieces from recognised jewellery houses are flagged before any offer, so you can take them to a jeweller or an auction house.
• A good centre diamond is usually worth more than the platinum holding it. We do not grade or value stones, so a ring like that is flagged and we suggest a jeweller sees it first.
• Hand-pierced, millegrain (a fine beaded edge) and hand-engraved settings are flagged as possible jewellery rather than metal.
• Platinum and palladium coins and bars in original packaging are kept sealed; we tell you whether they can be checked without opening before anything is done.
• Where we think a piece belongs with a jeweller or an auction house, we say so in writing, and post it back free if you would rather take it there.

What happens to a white piece when it arrives

Every white piece is treated as unidentified until its marks have been read and it has been weighed and checked, and then it is named on the list as whatever it turned out to be. Assuming that white means platinum, or that it means gold, would get some pieces wrong.

• The parcel is opened, counted and photographed before anything is separated.
• Stones stay in their settings and are not paid for as metal; their weight is estimated and left out. If you want them back, say so in writing before you accept; once you have accepted the offer, they are taken out where that can be done safely and posted back to you. A stone that cannot be lifted out safely stays with the piece, and we tell you before anything else happens.
• Each piece appears on the list with the metal that was found and how it was established.
• Anything that may be worth more intact is described and set aside before any offer is made.
• One written offer covers the lot. Until you say yes nothing is sold or altered, and saying no costs nothing; offers, returns and payment and how it works cover the rest.

What we buy, and what we leave out

Stopped before anything is treated as scrap

• Edwardian and Art Deco platinum, particularly hand-pierced diamond-set work, is flagged before any offer
• Signed pieces from recognised jewellery houses are flagged so you can show them to a jeweller or an auction house first
• A ring with a good centre diamond is flagged, because the stone is usually worth more than its mount and we do not grade or value stones
• Millegrain, hand-engraved and hand-pierced settings are flagged as possible jewellery rather than metal
• Platinum and palladium coins and bars in original packaging are kept sealed
• We say in writing where a piece may do better with a jeweller or an auction house, and post it back free if you would rather take it there