How to sell inherited gold jewellery safely in the UK

It depends on the size and structure of the estate. Speak to the executor or a probate solicitor before disposing of items if probate is still in progress. Once probate is complete and the items are in the hands of the beneficiary, the seller can decide freely.

GoldPaid provides a written, itemised commercial valuation of the metal and stone content, dated the day it is tested. It is not independent, because GoldPaid buys gold and silver. The estate figure is the value on the date of death: GOV.UK asks what each item would have sold for then, and a registered valuer is the safer route for high-value pieces or an estate near the Inheritance Tax threshold.

A written, transparent valuation can help, everyone can see exactly what the items are worth on the market today, which often takes the heat out of the conversation. There is no obligation to sell. Our guide to dividing inherited jewellery between beneficiaries sets out four methods families actually use.

No. Jewellery is a personal chattel, so there is no register and no institution holding it, and there is no certificate for a buyer to check. GoldPaid does not ask for one. Photo ID is required on every transaction, and you are told that at the start rather than after your items have arrived. See do you need probate or a death certificate to sell inherited jewellery for the full position.

Open market value at the date of death. Most estates are excepted estates and send no IHT400 at all; where a full account is needed, jewellery goes on schedule IHT407, with any individual item valued at £1,500 or more listed separately. Our guide to valuing jewellery for IHT400 and IHT407 walks through it. This is general information, not tax advice.

Usually not. Your base cost is the item’s value at the date of death, not what the deceased paid, so only growth since then counts as a gain. HMRC’s helpsheet HS293 says no gain needs calculating on a personal possession sold for £6,000 or less, and most inherited jewellery sold for its metal falls below that. Where proceeds do exceed £6,000, marginal relief caps the chargeable gain at five-thirds of the excess, and a matching set sold to the same buyer counts as one item. Our jewellery CGT explainer sets out the arithmetic. General information, not tax advice.

Not while it is still part of the estate. Where there is no will there is no executor; the closest living relative must apply for letters of administration, and has no authority to dispose of estate assets until that grant is issued. Once the estate is distributed under the intestacy rules, whoever inherits a piece can sell it freely. This is the practical difference from an executor, whose authority comes from the will itself, and gov.uk advises against making financial plans around estate assets before the grant. See do you need probate to sell inherited jewellery. General information, not legal advice.

There is no legal time limit. Once a piece has been distributed to you it is yours, and you can sell it next month or in twenty years. The two things that change with time are the gold price, which moves daily in both directions, and Capital Gains Tax, because your base cost stays fixed at the date-of-death value, so a large rise in gold can build a gain on high-value pieces. There is no advantage in selling before you are ready: a reputable buyer will still be there next year, and any rate quoted on a given day is indicative, not a promise.

For most pieces, its metal content: the confirmed weight and the tested purity, priced against the live precious-metal market, which already has our margin inside it, so nothing further is taken off. Age and sentiment do not add money value unless a piece is genuinely collectable, signed by a known maker, or set with stones that have their own market. A written valuation prices each piece separately. Any real figure depends on inspection, item weight, purity, hallmarks, stones and condition, so treat any sight-unseen number as indicative. Photos on WhatsApp get you a quick indicative range before you post anything, with no obligation either way.

Match the route to the piece. Ordinary hallmarked gold, broken chains and dated pieces are usually worth their metal, which a scrap buyer, local or postal, can price transparently by weight and purity. Signed, antique or fine gem-set pieces can exceed metal value at a specialist auction, though seller commission and fees apply and a sale takes weeks. As a published reference, Fellows Auctioneers lists 15 per cent seller commission plus VAT plus lot fees (checked 6 August 2026). A postal metal buyer is the wrong route for a genuinely collectable piece; auction versus a postal buyer covers where the line falls.

Royal Mail Special Delivery is tracked at every stage, requires a signature on delivery, and Royal Mail cover may be available up to £2,500 depending on the postal method and cover level used. Wrap each piece individually, use plain packaging with nothing on the outside suggesting valuables, and keep your proof of posting receipt. The caveat is the cover ceiling: if you believe a single item may be worth more than the cover available, raise it before requesting a label. GoldPaid can confirm the appropriate postal option before you post, and a valuable single piece may be better handled by a specialist or an auction house.

Check the hallmark: 375 means 9ct, 585 means 14ct, 750 means 18ct and 916 means 22ct. Marks such as "rolled gold", "gold filled", "GP" or "1/20 12ct" indicate plating or filled metal with little scrap value. No mark does not mean no gold; older and imported pieces are often unhallmarked. An XRF assay reads the actual alloy without damaging the piece, which is how unhallmarked items are confirmed. If you can photograph the marks, send them on WhatsApp and you will be told what they mean before you decide anything. The hallmark guide shows the marks in detail.

Get the offer in writing, itemised piece by piece, before you commit to anything. A trustworthy buyer shows the weight, tested purity and rate used for each item, lets you decline at no cost with a free tracked return, and never pressures you to accept on the spot. Check the company is registered at Companies House and read its reviews. Comparing two or three written offers on the same items is the single most effective check, and any buyer who objects to that has told you something useful. Walk-in cash offers with no paperwork leave you nothing to compare or challenge later.

Yes. Every piece is priced on its own line of the written valuation, so reply saying which pieces you want back. They are returned free on a tracked, signed-for label and the rest is paid by Faster Payments. There is no charge for splitting a parcel at the decision stage.

Then do not sell it yet. Nothing obliges you to decide, and there is no penalty from us for waiting a year or a decade. A written offer is dated and holds for a limited time because metal prices move, but if it lapses it is simply re-run at the day’s rate when you are ready. A sale cannot be undone once the metal is melted, so there is no reason to decide soon after a loss. Keep anything you are unsure about, and only sell pieces you can part with without hesitation. A middle path is to find out what things are worth without committing: photos on WhatsApp cost nothing and create no obligation, and a written valuation can sit in a drawer with the jewellery as a record until you are ready. Some families also have a jeweller remodel one favourite piece and sell the rest.