By Rocco Clayfield, trading as GoldPaid; the business incorporated as GOLDPAID LTD (company 17382540) on 5 August 2026 · Published · updated
Found a stamp on your piece? Send us a photo of it
Photograph the number stamped inside the ring or on the clasp, then the whole piece, and send both on WhatsApp. We will reply with what the mark means and a rough estimate of what we would pay. 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.
Why these two get confused
White gold and platinum are both silvery, both used heavily in engagement and wedding rings, and both retail in a similar price band. They look identical on day one. From the buyer side, they are very different metals with different densities, different alloy partners, and different scrap economics.
Platinum is a single noble metal alloyed lightly for workability. White gold is yellow gold mixed with palladium, silver or nickel to neutralise the yellow, then plated with rhodium to push it the rest of the way to bright white.
The hallmark is the first answer
UK hallmarking covers platinum at four legal standards: 850, 900, 950 and 999 parts per thousand. The standard you will see most often on rings is 950 (95% platinum). In a UK hallmark the number sits inside a house-shaped surround, a pentagon with a pointed top, beside the sponsor’s mark and the assay office mark, sometimes with the optional orb symbol. PT or PLAT stamped on its own is a maker’s claim, not a hallmark.
White gold carries one of the standard gold marks: 375, 585, 750, or 916. The mark itself does not say "white". The piece could be yellow, white or rose under the same number, because the parts-per-thousand of pure gold is the same. You read the colour by eye and the standard by the stamp.
Density: the test you can do at home
You will not need a lab. Pick the ring up. If you have ever held both, platinum has a distinctive heft you remember. If you have not, weigh the ring on a kitchen scale. A plain 6mm wedding band in 18ct white gold will commonly land around 7 to 9 grams. The same band in platinum will commonly land around 11 to 13 grams.
Rhodium-plated white gold: the giveaway
White gold is finished with a rhodium electroplate. Rhodium is brilliantly white, harder than gold, and gives the bright cool finish you see in jewellers’ windows. It wears off. The inside of the shank, where the ring slides against your finger every day, loses its rhodium first. Underneath you will see the underlying white-gold alloy, which is warmer and slightly yellow.
Platinum does not have a plating. It dulls uniformly to a soft satin, gains microscopic surface scratches that look like a brushed finish, but never reveals a different colour underneath.
Step-by-step identification
- Read the inside of the shank with a 10x loupe. PT950, 950, PLAT means platinum. 750, 585, 375 means gold.
- Find the colour change. Tilt the ring under good light. If the rhodium has worn off the inside, you will see a warmer cream-white tone next to the cooler white of the still-plated outside.
- Weigh it. Use a kitchen scale that reads to the gram. Compare to typical weights for the band width.
- Inspect the prongs on a set ring. White gold prongs often look a touch yellower than the head. Platinum prongs look the same colour as the head and the shank.
- Illegible stamps are not a dead end. XRF separates platinum from white gold without ambiguity, and the written report gives the standard.
What each one pays at scrap
Platinum is a separate market from gold, with its own LBMA spot price and its own refining route. Scrap platinum pays on the live platinum market, not the gold market. White gold is paid as gold at its standard. The rhodium plating is not recovered separately at retail-scrap volume, because the layer is too thin to refine economically per piece.
Final offers depend on inspection, item weight, purity, hallmarks, stones, non-gold components, condition and the live precious-metal market.
Posting both together
You can put platinum and white-gold items in the same parcel. The XRF screens each piece independently and the written report separates platinum entries from gold entries. If you accept one and decline the other, the declined items come back to you by free tracked return. Your parcel travels on Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed, tracked and signed for. Royal Mail cover may be available up to £2,500 depending on the postal method and cover level used. GoldPaid can confirm the appropriate postal option before you post. If the lot may be worth more than £2,500, tell us first and we can split it across more than one prepaid label at no charge. The full method is on the sell gold by post page.
Reading the ring in your hand
You do not need to guess. The hallmark, the weight in your palm and the colour on the inside of the shank usually tell the story. When they do not, an XRF report finishes it. The answer is the one written down with the numbers next to it. Sell on the report, not on the showroom impression. If a stamp is illegible, XRF testing separates platinum from white gold and puts the result in writing.