By Rocco Clayfield, Founder & Director, GoldPaid Ltd · Published 6 August 2026
Light matters far more than the phone does
Any phone made in the last decade has enough resolution to read a hallmark. What defeats them is light. Polished gold and silver behave like curved mirrors, so a flash fires straight back into the lens and turns a punched mark into a white blank. Work about a metre from a window on an overcast day, or in shade on a bright one, and turn the flash off entirely.
Use a plain matt background in a mid tone: a sheet of grey or off-white paper, a folded tea towel, the back of a cereal box. Avoid glass, marble, granite worktops and anything patterned, because a busy background makes automatic exposure and focus guess wrongly. Lay pieces flat and separate rather than piled, so nothing casts a shadow on anything else.
The four photographs worth taking
- The whole lot, laid flat. Everything separated, nothing overlapping, shot from directly above. This is the picture that establishes what is in the collection and how big each piece is relative to the others.
- A close-up of every mark. Rings on the inside of the band, chains and bracelets on the clasp or the tag next to it, earrings on the post or butterfly, silver on the base or the underside of the handle. One mark per photograph.
- Stones, clasps and fittings. Anything that is not plain metal changes the payable weight, so show it clearly. Include the reverse of any set piece, because the back of a setting often reveals whether a stone is glued or claw-set.
- The lot on a scale. Put the whole lot on a scale and photograph the reading with the items visible. Then weigh anything substantial on its own. A weight, even an approximate one, moves an indicative figure from a guess to an estimate.
Getting a tiny hallmark in focus on a phone
Hallmark punches are often under a millimetre tall and worn shallow, which is exactly the situation phone cameras handle worst. Four techniques fix most of it.
- Respect the minimum focus distance. A main phone lens usually cannot focus closer than roughly seven to ten centimetres. Pushing closer produces a blur no amount of tapping will fix. Shoot from a comfortable distance where the image is sharp, then crop in afterwards.
- Tap the screen on the mark. Autofocus and auto-exposure will otherwise lock onto the brightest reflection. Tapping tells the phone which part of the frame matters, and on most phones you can then drag the exposure slider down a little to stop the metal blowing out.
- Light the mark from the side. Turn the piece so light rakes across the punch rather than hitting it square on. Side light casts a shadow inside each stamped character, which is what makes it readable. This single change fixes more unreadable hallmark photos than anything else.
- Use a loupe or the ultrawide lens. A ten-pound jeweller’s loupe held flat against the phone lens works as a macro adapter. Many recent phones also focus much closer on the ultrawide camera, which is often labelled macro mode.
Weighing: what a kitchen scale can and cannot tell you
Most kitchen scales resolve to one gram, which is far too coarse for jewellery. A one-gram resolution on a four-gram ring is a twenty-five per cent uncertainty before anyone has tested anything. If you can borrow or buy a small jewellery scale reading to 0.01g, do; if not, weigh the whole lot together so the rounding error is spread across a bigger number, and say plainly that the figure is from a kitchen scale.
Two other points matter. First, any weight you take at home is a gross weight: it includes stones, clasps, springs, watch movements and solder, none of which are payable gold. Second, a scale reading tells you nothing about purity. A heavy plated chain and a light solid one can weigh the same. Weight and purity are two separate measurements and both are needed before a figure means anything, which is why the assay happens on arrival. See XRF testing explained for how purity is confirmed without acid or scratching.
What a photograph can settle, and what it cannot
| Usually visible in a good photograph | Not settled by any photograph |
|---|---|
| Whether a hallmark or fineness stamp is present, and what it reads | Whether the alloy actually matches the mark |
| Worn plating at edges, clasps and high points | Solid versus plated on an unworn or lightly worn piece |
| That stones are present, roughly how many and how large | What the stones are, or what they are worth |
| Style, period and general construction quality | Solder content, hollow versus solid construction, internal filling |
| Coin type, date and obvious wear | Whether a coin is genuine, and whether it carries collector value above metal |
| A rough size against a coin or ruler in frame | Weight, to any useful precision |
This is why any figure quoted from a photograph is indicative rather than firm. A buyer who gives you a firm number from an image is either guessing or building in a hedge that comes out of your side once the parcel arrives.
Marks that are commonly misread from a photograph
| What you see | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| 925 on a gold-coloured piece | Sterling silver that has been gold-plated or gilded, often sold as vermeil. The mark refers to the silver beneath, not to gold. |
| EPNS, EP, A1, nickel silver | Electroplated nickel silver. A thin silver layer over a base alloy, with no recoverable silver value. |
| 1/20 12K GF, RGP, HGE, GP | Gold filled, rolled gold plate, heavy gold electroplate, gold plate. A bonded or plated layer over base metal, not solid gold. |
| 14K or 18K with no UK hallmark | A maker’s quality stamp rather than an assayed hallmark. Frequently accurate, occasionally not. Only a test settles it. |
| 375, 585, 750, 916, 999 | UK millesimal fineness for 9ct, 14ct, 18ct, 22ct and 24ct gold. These are the marks most worth photographing closely. |
| 800, 830, 835 | Continental silver standards below sterling. Genuine silver, with less of it than 925. |
The full walkthrough of UK marks is on the gold hallmark guide and the silver hallmarks guide, and there is a quick version in how to read a gold hallmark in 60 seconds.
What to write alongside the photographs
- The rough total weight, and what you weighed it on.
- Any marks you can read, typed out, in case the photograph is not clear enough.
- Anything you know about where a piece came from, particularly for inherited items where an old receipt or valuation may exist.
- Whether any piece is broken, and whether you mind it being treated as scrap.
- Anything you are unsure about. “I think this one might be plated” is genuinely useful and costs you nothing.
Send it all in one message rather than in fragments. On WhatsApp on 07763 741067 that takes a couple of minutes and gets you a considered answer rather than a series of questions back.
Common questions
Can a gold buyer value my jewellery from a photograph?
Only indicatively. A photograph can show what is present, what marks are on it and roughly how big it is. It cannot confirm purity, exact weight, solder content or whether a piece is plated, so any figure from an image is a guide and a firm offer waits for testing and weighing.
Should I clean jewellery before photographing it?
A gentle wipe with a soft dry cloth to remove dust is fine and helps a hallmark read. Do not polish, dip or scrub, particularly on silver and on anything antique, because aggressive cleaning can remove metal and can damage the value of collectable pieces.
What is the best background for jewellery photographs?
A plain matt mid-tone surface: grey or off-white paper, a folded cloth, or plain card. Avoid glass, polished stone worktops and patterns, all of which confuse automatic exposure and focus.
How do I photograph a hallmark that is too small to see?
Light it from the side so the punch casts a shadow, tap the screen on the mark to set focus and exposure, shoot from the closest distance where the image is still sharp, and crop afterwards. A jeweller’s loupe held against the lens works well as an improvised macro adapter.
Do I need to weigh my items before sending photographs?
It is not required but it helps a lot. Even a kitchen-scale figure for the whole lot moves an indicative answer from a guess to an estimate. Say what you weighed it on, and remember the reading is a gross weight including stones and clasps.