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 lighter in colour again and much lighter in the hand. Put three new rings side by side and the differences are invisible.

The confusion matters because these are three different metals with three different markets, and being paid as the wrong one is how a seller loses out on a white ring. That is why nothing here is identified by colour and why every white piece is treated as unknown until a mark or a measurement 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. Since 1999 the symbol has been optional, and the shape of the shield round the number identifies the metal on its own. 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 claims rather than assay evidence, which does not mean they are wrong, only that they are checked. The UK hallmarks guide illustrates each symbol at size.

What weight and wear will tell you at home

Pick two plain bands of the same size, one platinum and one palladium, and the difference is startling: platinum is nearly twice as heavy 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 has no plating to lose: it is the same metal all the way through and simply develops a soft matt patina where it has been knocked about. A white ring with a warm tinge where it has worn has almost always been gold all along.

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 a clue rather than a verdict.
2. Weighed in air and in waterOn a plain, stone-free band this usually settles the question on its own, because the three metals differ in density. Stones and hollow shanks make it unreliable, and where they are present it is not used.
3. Read at the surfaceWhere an analyser is available, a surface reading by XRF reports platinum, palladium, gold, rhodium and the alloying metals together. Rhodium-plated white gold shows rhodium sitting over gold, which is a distinctive and useful result.
4. Read away from the joinsReadings and tests are taken 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 tested 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: this ring is 950 platinum, that one is 18ct white gold with rhodium plating, this band is 500 palladium. If a piece turns out to be gold rather than platinum it is still bought, as gold. Nothing is turned away for being the wrong white metal. See testing and XRF for what each method can and cannot establish.

Send the whole box, white pieces and all

White jewellery is precisely the category where people should not be sorting at home, because the sorting requires the thing the sorting is meant to find out. Put the white pieces in with the yellow ones and send the box. A drawer of mixed rings, chains and odd earrings is a completely ordinary parcel and separating the metals is the work.

• Leave stones in their settings. Diamonds in particular are set tightly and lifting one at home damages the claws.
• Leave rhodium plating alone. Do not have a ring re-plated or polished before sending it; it removes the evidence and a little metal with it.
• Send the certificate if a stone has one. A certificated diamond is usually worth more than the mount it sits in, and the paperwork belongs with it.
• Send the pieces you think are costume too. Platinum-coloured base metal and real platinum are equally unremarkable to look at.
• A box of rings is small and can be valuable, so tell us roughly what is in it before you post; security and insurance explains how it travels.
• If a ring was a wedding or engagement ring, it is worth pausing before sending at all. That is a decision rather than an identification, and there is no hurry on it.

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. 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 checked as second-hand jewellery first, without exception.
• A good centre diamond is usually worth considerably more than the platinum holding it, so the stone is assessed in its own right.
• Hand-pierced, millegrain and hand-engraved settings are craftsmanship that a modern casting does not replicate.
• Platinum and palladium coins and bars in original packaging are kept sealed and assessed as they are.
• Where we think a piece belongs with a jeweller or a saleroom, we say so plainly and post it back free.

What happens to a white piece when it arrives

Every white piece is treated as unidentified until it has been through the marks, the weighing and the tests, 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 either way.

• The parcel is opened, counted and photographed before anything is separated.
• Stones are noted, with their weight estimated and left out. They stay in their settings unless you agree in writing to their removal (clause 4.2). If you do and you accept the offer, they are taken out where that is safe and returned to you.
• Each piece appears on the list with the metal that was found and how it was established.
• Anything flagged as worth more intact is described and set aside before any offer is made.
• One written offer covers the lot. Nothing is sold or altered until you say yes, and declining costs you nothing; offers, returns and payment sets out each answer, and how it works the stages around it.

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 anything else
• Signed pieces from recognised jewellery houses are assessed as second-hand jewellery first
• A good centre diamond is assessed on its own, because it is usually worth more than its mount
• Millegrain, hand-engraved and hand-pierced settings are treated as craftsmanship rather than as metal
• Platinum and palladium coins and bars in original packaging are kept sealed
• We say in writing where a piece should go to a jeweller or a saleroom, and post it back free