The back-room jewellery triage system: red, amber, green.

A red, amber, green (RAG) triage system is the simplest way to sort donated jewellery in a charity back room without adding time to a shift. Red items are separated immediately and held for specialist assessment. Amber items get photographed and checked before pricing. Green items are routine costume that can be priced for the shop floor. The RAG system fits on a single laminate, takes seconds per item once a volunteer has learned the rules, and cuts the chance of a real precious-metal piece being sold as costume. This guide gives the printable rules for each colour, the storage and escalation process, and the way to roll it out across volunteers without resistance. The rules are short enough to remember and light enough that managers keep using them after the first fortnight.

Three reasons RAG works better than other sorting systems I've tested with charity shops.

Memorable. Volunteers remember three colours. They don't always remember a printed seven-point checklist or a long flowchart. RAG fits in working memory.

Visible. Once colour stickers, trays or labels are in use, anyone walking into the back room can see which items are which. A new volunteer can pick up the system at a glance.

Granular. Two categories (real vs costume) is too binary; some items genuinely need a second look. Three categories give space for uncertain items (amber) without sending everything to the manager.

The RAG system maps cleanly onto the photo workflow. Red and amber items get photographed. Green items go to the shop floor. Anything in red or amber stays off the shop floor until cleared.

Red items: stop, separate, escalate immediately

A red item has at least one of these signals:

• A clearly visible UK hallmark (the three- or four-shield cluster).
• A purity stamp readable to the naked eye: 9ct, 14ct, 18ct, 22ct, 375, 585, 750, 916, 925, sterling, lion image.
• Britannia silver mark (958 or Britannia figure).
• A known maker name (Mappin and Webb, Walker and Hall, Cartier, Tiffany, Rolex, etc.).
• A clear branded watch (Rolex, Omega, Cartier, Patek, etc.).
• A sovereign or half-sovereign.
• Substantial weight for the item's size (a chain, ring or bracelet that feels noticeably heavy).

Action. Item goes straight into the red tray in the locked drawer. Logged in the back-room notebook. Photographed top-down within the next shift. Sent on WhatsApp 07944014111.

Do not. Do not put on the shop floor. Do not list online. Do not price.

Amber items: hold, photograph, check before pricing

An amber item has at least one of these signals:

• A partial or worn stamp that you can't read clearly.
• A foreign or unfamiliar mark.
• Heavy for its size but no visible stamp.
• Solid construction (proper soldered clasps, set stones, no glue) but no marks.
• An item type often associated with hidden value: pocket watches, silver-coloured cutlery, silver-coloured photo frames, religious medals, military medals.
• A donor mention ("this was my grandfather's").

Action. Item goes into the amber tray. Logged briefly. Photographed within the next shift. Sent on WhatsApp.

Do not. Do not put on the shop floor until cleared. Do not list online until cleared.

Green items: routine costume, price normally

A green item has none of the red or amber signals.

• Light, glittery costume jewellery with painted finishes.
• Plated items with worn spots showing base metal.
• Clearly modern fashion pieces, often colourful or with plastic.
• Items with brand names that are recognisable as costume brands.
• Magnetic items (real gold and silver are not magnetic).

Action. Price normally. Put on shop floor.

If in doubt, default to amber. False positives in amber cost nothing. False negatives in green (a real item priced as costume) are the cost the RAG system exists to prevent.

Three trays. Three colours of sticker. One laminated rule card. That's the entire physical infrastructure.

Tray 1: Red. Lockable, in the back room. Manager has the key.

Tray 2: Amber. In the back room, on a labelled shelf. Not on the shop floor.

Tray 3: Green. Standard sorting tray, contents go to pricing and the shop floor.

Stickers. Small red, amber, green stickers (the kind used for stock taking) on every flagged item, applied before the item is placed in the tray.

Rule card. A laminated A4 with the three rules above, pinned at the sorting table.

Total setup cost: under £10 if the shop buys trays and stickers locally. A sheet of 8mm dot stickers in red, amber and green costs a pound or two and lasts months. The trays need not be special: three plastic tubs with taped-on colour labels work, provided the red one lives in something that locks. Total setup time: about thirty minutes.

This is the version we send charity shops on request. Print on A4, laminate, pin in the back room.

RAG donation triage

RED. Stop. Lock. Photograph. Send. Hallmarks. Purity stamps (9ct, 18ct, 22ct, 375, 585, 750, 916, 925, sterling). Lion or Britannia mark. Known maker. Branded watch. Sovereign. Heavy chain or ring.

AMBER. Hold. Photograph. Send. Check before pricing. Partial or worn mark. Foreign mark. Heavy for size, no stamp. Solid construction, no mark. Pocket watch. Silver-coloured cutlery. Silver photo frame. Religious medal. Military medal. Donor mention.

GREEN. Price normally. Light costume. Painted finishes. Worn plate showing base metal. Modern fashion. Magnetic items. Costume brands.

If in doubt, default to AMBER.

WhatsApp photos to GoldPaid: 07944014111

The RAG system can be introduced to a volunteer team in one shift.

Step 1. Set up the three trays and the rule card before the shift starts.

Step 2. At shift handover, walk volunteers through the three rules. Five minutes. Use one real example for each colour. A good trio: a chain with a 375 stamp on the clasp tag (red), a heavy unmarked bangle with a properly soldered hinge (amber), and a glittery brooch that jumps to a fridge magnet (green). Handling real examples fixes the rules faster than reading them.

Step 3. During the shift, run the first hour of sorting in pairs. Each volunteer sorts a small batch, then the manager checks the placement. This is the calibration round.

Step 4. From hour two onwards, volunteers sort independently. The manager spot-checks the red and amber trays at the next break.

Step 5. End of shift, photograph the red and amber trays and send on WhatsApp.

The rules are simple enough that a volunteer can usually run RAG without supervision after being shown once.

Amber items sometimes become red after a closer look. The escalation path:

1. Volunteer flags item as amber based on initial signals.
2. Manager reviews amber tray within the shift.
3. If manager spots a clearer signal (a mark the volunteer missed, a maker name visible from a different angle, an unusual weight), the item moves to red.
4. Red tray is locked. Photographed within the same day. Sent on WhatsApp.

A typical escalation: a volunteer ambers a plain band because the stamp inside is worn flat. The manager tilts it under the desk lamp and picks out a faint crown, a 750 and an anchor. That is 18ct gold, Birmingham assayed. The band moves to red and into the locked drawer the same shift.

The manager's role in RAG is mostly amber-to-red escalation. Green and red are usually clear from the start. Amber is the category where managerial judgement adds the most value.

What happens once the reply comes back:

If we reply "worth posting". Charity confirms, we send a prepaid Royal Mail label, the shop posts the parcel. See Safe handling.

If we reply "don't bother posting, but worth listing online". Items move from amber/red to the e-commerce route. See Charity e-commerce guide.

If we reply "costume, price as green". Items move from amber to green and go to the shop floor.

If we reply "send a sharper photo". The volunteer or manager retakes the photo. Photos are free; iterating is fine.

Triage flags the item and the WhatsApp loop settles it. Neither does much on its own.

Three issues that come up when charity shops introduce RAG.

Issue. Volunteers over-flag in the first week and the amber tray fills up.

Fix. This is fine. False positives cost nothing. We'd rather see twenty amber items that turn out to be costume than miss one real item. After two or three weeks, volunteers self-calibrate and over-flagging settles.

Issue. A manager doesn't review the amber tray promptly and items back up.

Fix. Pick a regular slot, ideally daily, for a five-minute amber review. Many shops use the end-of-shift cash-up as the natural slot.

Issue. Volunteers forget the colour rules between shifts.

Fix. The laminated rule card is the safety net. Pin it visibly. Refer to it during induction.

Issue. Different volunteers apply the rules differently.

Fix. Calibration days. Once a month, the manager runs a five-item exercise at shift handover, asking each volunteer where they'd place each item. Quick discussion. Skills converge.

The RAG system scales naturally across multiple shops. The discipline is the same. The benefits at chain scale:

• Standardised triage means every shop applies the same rules.
• Standardised photos mean an area manager can review weekly submissions consistently.
• Standardised escalation means the central jewellery check (if the chain runs one) receives flagged items in a known format.

See Regional chain leakage reduction for the area-manager edition.

Rocco Clayfield, Director, GoldPaid.