By Rocco Clayfield, founder of GoldPaid (GOLDPAID LTD) · Published · updated
Got the piece in front of you? Get a figure for it
Send a photo of the piece and any stamp on WhatsApp. We will reply with a rough estimate for it. No obligation, and nothing needs posting.
No WhatsApp? Call 07944 014111, 8am to 9pm.
Not sure what the mark says? Use the hallmark lookup. Final offers depend on inspection, item weight, purity, hallmarks, stones, non-gold components, condition and the live precious-metal market.
What is one small ring actually worth?
Rings are lighter than people expect. A slim ladies’ wedding band is usually 1.5 g to 2.5 g. A gents’ band is 3 g to 6 g. A thin stacking ring or a child’s ring can be under a gram. Almost nothing in a jewellery box weighs what it looks like it weighs, which is why an honest answer starts with a scale rather than a guess.
Rings are lighter than people expect, and the metal value follows the weight and the assayed purity. These are the typical weights; the pounds follow the fine-gold content once the purity is confirmed by XRF assay.
| What it is | Typical weight | What tends to drive its value |
|---|---|---|
| Thin stacking ring or child’s ring, 9ct | 1 g | Solid 9ct: small but real metal value |
| Plain 9ct wedding band, ladies | 2 g | Solid 9ct: clears real money for its size |
| Plain 9ct wedding band, gents | 4 g | Solid 9ct: the heavier the band, the more metal |
| Plain 18ct band | 3 g | Twice the fine gold of 9ct, gram for gram |
| 9ct stone-set dress ring, roughly 1.8 g of gold once the stone is allowed for | 2.5 g gross | Priced on the gold, not the gross weight or the stone |
| Sterling silver ring | 3 g | Silver: a small fraction of the gold value per gram |
| Gold-plated, rolled gold or costume ring | any | No recoverable metal value |
Two things fall straight out of that table. Solid gold clears real money even in tiny quantities, because gold is expensive and a ring is dense. Silver does not: sterling sits at a small fraction of the gold value per gram, so a whole silver ring is worth less than the coffee you would buy on the way to the Post Office. Send a photo and the weight on WhatsApp for a rough estimate, and see spot price versus scrap price for why a buyer rate sits below the headline market price at every reputable buyer.
What does the round trip cost, and who pays for it?
Somebody has to pay the carriage both ways, and on a small lot that cost is a large fraction of the value. Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1pm is published at £9.95 for a 100 g parcel Monday to Friday, including compensation up to £750 as standard, with cover that may be available up to £2,500 for £10 more (Post Office published prices, checked 6 August 2026). A label out to you plus a tracked parcel back if you decline is therefore roughly £20 to £40 in postage alone, before anyone has switched on an XRF analyser or written an offer.
GoldPaid pays that, not you. The label is free, the assay is free, the written offer is free and the tracked return if you decline is free. That is the only reason a single ring can make sense at all: your cost is the walk to the counter and nothing else. It is also why we would far rather tell you honestly not to send something than take a parcel in and disappoint you at the other end.
Does GoldPaid have a minimum amount?
No. There is no minimum weight, no minimum value, no fee at any stage, and nothing is ever kept on the basis that it was too small to be worth returning. One ring is handled exactly like a full jewellery box: weighed, XRF tested, itemised and offered in writing. The fee position in full is in what postal gold buyers actually charge.
That is the policy. The practical question is a different one, and it belongs to you rather than to us: is this worth your morning? Our own working rule of thumb, and it is a rule of thumb rather than a rule, looks like this.
| Indicative metal value | What we will usually say |
|---|---|
| Over about £50 | Clearly worth posting. That covers most solid gold rings above a gram or two. |
| About £20 to £50 | Worth it if a Post Office is on your way anyway, and worth considerably more if you can find a second item for the same envelope. |
| Under about £20 | We will say so. One small silver ring, a very light gold fragment, or a stone-heavy piece with little gold in it usually sits here. Keep it until you have more, or keep it altogether. |
| No recoverable metal | We will tell you it is plated, rolled gold or costume, and that there is nothing for us to buy. No charge, no parcel, no awkwardness. |
None of that is a hurdle you have to clear before we will deal with you. It is simply what we would say to a relative who asked the same question.
How does the photo-first filter work?
- Photograph the ring on a plain surface in daylight, with any marks inside the band shown as clearly as your phone will manage. Our guide to photographing jewellery for a remote valuation takes two minutes to read.
- Weigh it if you have kitchen scales that read to 0.1 g, and say so if you cannot. Weight is the single most useful thing you can tell us.
- Send both to 07944 014111 on WhatsApp with a sentence about what it is and where it came from.
- We reply with an honest indicative range, or with a plain "this is not worth posting", usually within 30 minutes during working hours.
- You decide. If it is worth sending, ask for the free label. If it is not, you have lost nothing and you still have the ring.
A photograph cannot confirm purity and we will never pretend otherwise. What it does reliably is separate solid gold from plated, pick up a hallmark, and get the weight roughly right, which is enough to say whether a parcel is worth packing. The firm figure only exists after the assay, and the method is set out on how we value gold.
Why does a tiny ring often have no hallmark?
Small rings are frequently unmarked, and people assume that means they are not gold. Usually it means the ring sits below the hallmarking exemption weight. UK law requires a hallmark only on articles above a threshold: 1 gram for gold and palladium, 7.78 grams for silver, and 0.5 grams for platinum (the Dealer’s Notice published on gov.uk, under the Hallmarking Act 1973). A 0.9 g gold ring can be entirely legitimate and carry no mark at all.
Older rings can be unmarked for other reasons: marks worn smooth by decades of wear, a resize that removed the marked section of the shank, or an import that predates the current rules. That is precisely the question an XRF assay settles in seconds without damaging anything, which is why an unmarked ring deserves a photograph rather than a bin. Selling gold jewellery without hallmarks covers it properly.
When is one ring worth more than its metal?
Scrap value is a floor, not a ceiling, and for a minority of rings it is simply the wrong number. Do not send these to any metal buyer, ourselves included, without asking somewhere else first.
- A ring with a certificated diamond, or any single stone much above a third of a carat. A metal-content offer values the mount and allows for the stone, it does not pay a retail stone price.
- Signed pieces. Cartier, Tiffany, Boodles, Georg Jensen and similar names are usually worth more than the gold in them.
- Sovereign and half sovereign coin-set rings, where the coin can be worth more than its melt value. See selling gold sovereigns by post.
- Georgian and Victorian rings, mourning rings, and anything with enamel or fine handwork. Selling antique gold explains where the antique premium sits.
- Anything you would genuinely wear. A wearable ring is worth more on a hand than in a refining crucible.
We say the same thing in writing when a parcel arrives containing something that should not be scrapped. It costs us the sale and saves you a decision that cannot be reversed. Gold buyer versus auction house sets out when the auction route genuinely wins.
When is posting one small ring the wrong answer?
- You have one sterling silver ring and nothing else. It is worth a few pounds. Put it in a drawer with the rest of the household silver and send the lot once there is a reasonable quantity of it.
- The ring is plated, rolled gold or costume. There is no recoverable metal, and no honest buyer will pay for it.
- You need money today. A postal sale takes a couple of days end to end. A reputable high-street buyer pays less per gram but pays now, and on a very small lot that difference can be a few pounds. Why high-street buyers pay less has the arithmetic.
- You are recently bereaved and not sure. The metal will be worth broadly what it is worth in six months. Nothing about this has to happen this week, and our guide to selling inherited gold is written with that in mind.
- Somebody has told you the ring must be sold before a deadline. That is not how any of this works, and it is a reason to slow down rather than speed up.
What if one small ring is genuinely all you have?
Two practical things before you decide. First, look again. Single earrings whose partner vanished years ago, a snapped chain at the back of a drawer, a broken clasp, a bent bangle, an old dental crown in an envelope: all of it travels in the same parcel under the same free label, and the lot is weighed and assayed together. Mixed gold lots and broken chains are worth exactly the metal inside them, whatever state they are in. That is what selling scrap gold by post comes down to, and selling gold jewellery by post covers rings, chains and every other kind of piece.
Second, ask before you pack. One photograph and one message settles whether the trip to the counter is worth making, and the answer is free either way. If it is worth sending, the sequence is short: free label, post at a staffed counter, XRF assay, a written offer showing the purity, weight and rate for each item, and payment by Faster Payments, which we aim to send within one working hour of acceptance. Decline and the ring comes back tracked and free. The full walkthrough is in how to sell gold safely by post.