Gold jewellery — in any condition
Jewellery is what most people actually own: chains, rings, bracelets, earrings, pendants, and the drawer of odds and ends that accumulates around them. The condition bar is far lower than sellers expect. A snapped chain contains exactly as much gold as an intact one. A single earring, a bent brooch pin, a ring whose stone fell out years ago — none of these lose their metal value by being broken, and none of them need repairing first. A repair almost never returns more than it costs.
What decides jewellery's value is not how it looks but what it measures: the carat of the alloy, the weight of actual gold once stones and steel springs are allowed for, and the market reference on the day. A heavy 9ct chain can be worth less than a much lighter 22ct bangle, because a 9ct alloy is only nine parts gold in twenty-four. If the carat marks on your pieces are worn or missing, that is normal — fineness is then established by examination rather than read off the metal. Our guide to purity and weight explains exactly how those marks work.
Two things are worth doing before a visit: nothing, and specifically not cleaning. Polishing risks damaging stones and softening old settings, and on antique pieces it can remove patina that matters. Bring items exactly as they are.
Silver — hallmarked, continental, and plate
Silver is weighed and assessed on the same basis as gold, against its own market price. The pieces that carry real value are solid silver: sterling (925 parts per thousand, the standard for British hallmarked silver), continental grades such as 800 and 835, and older coin silver. Jewellery, cutlery, tableware, candlesticks and dressing-table sets all qualify if the metal itself is solid.
The honest complication is plate. Electroplated pieces — often marked EPNS, EPBM, or “silver plated” — carry only a microscopically thin layer of silver over a base metal, and contain almost no recoverable silver at all. A responsible buyer identifies plate plainly and says so, rather than weighing it with the solid pieces and letting the seller assume otherwise. If you are unsure which you have, bring it anyway: telling the difference is part of the assessment, not your homework.
Coins — weighed once, considered twice
Precious-metal coins are looked at in two distinct ways, and the difference can be worth real money to you. The first reading is bullion value: the coin's fine metal content multiplied by the market reference. A full gold sovereign, for example, has a fixed specification — 7.99 grams of 22ct gold, of which about 7.32 grams is pure — so its floor value moves directly with the gold price. Krugerrands, Britannias, and most modern bullion issues work the same way.
The second reading is collector value. Some coins are worth more than their metal because of date, mint mark, rarity or condition, and melting one down would destroy that premium. The professional obligation is to tell you when the coin in your hand is worth more as a coin — pre-decimal proof sets, low- mintage years and unusual strikes deserve that check. A pile of inherited coins should never be priced as scrap by default.
Bars and bullion — the stamp is checked, not trusted
Investment bars, from one-gram minted wafers to cast kilobars, state their own weight and fineness on their face, usually with a refiner's mark and a serial number. Those stamps are claims, and claims get verified: the stated weight is checked on the scale, and the fineness is verified against the metal rather than assumed from the engraving. Recognised bullion in good order is handled on its own terms — as investment metal with a published specification — rather than being treated as scrap.
Bars without paperwork, or older bars from refiners no longer operating, are still worth bringing in. The assessment simply leans harder on measurement, which is how every serious valuation works anyway. The process is the same one described step by step in how it works.
What sits outside the four categories
Some items contain precious metal without being obvious about it: older watch cases, dental gold, medals, thimbles, cigarette cases, and broken spectacle frames from the era when frames were made properly. If it might be gold or silver, it is worth an assessment — the answer costs you a conversation. Conversely, some convincing items contain nothing recoverable: rolled gold, gold-filled pieces and costume jewellery imitate the look without the metal. Being told clearly which is which is precisely what the counter visit is for.
Before you visit
Nothing needs sorting, cleaning or valuing beforehand, and there is no minimum worth bringing. If you want to prepare anyway, the most useful step is reading the frequently asked questions — carat, troy ounces and hallmarks in plain language — so the figures you hear at the counter already make sense.