Worked valuation examples

How to read these examples

Every offer GoldPaid makes rests on the same three facts: confirmed purity, read from the item itself by XRF rather than from the stamp; payable weight, on scales that read to 0.01 g; and the live precious-metal market on the day. The examples below show how those facts turn into a written offer. They are worked examples of the method, not records of real sales.

Worked example 1: an inherited 18ct locket, no hallmark

A Victorian locket with no legible hallmark. Because it carries no mark, a buyer working from stamps has to guess, and the safe guess is always the low one. XRF reads the metal instead: at 75.2 per cent fine gold it is 18ct, so it is valued as 18ct rather than defaulted to a 9ct assumption. On a 12.4 g locket that is the difference between being paid for 18ct gold and being paid for 9ct, roughly twice the fine-gold content. The gap is the difference between reading the metal and reading the stamp.

Worked example 2: 42.5 g of broken 9ct chain, mixed with plated pieces

A tangle of broken chains, single earrings and a snapped bracelet. Mixed lots are separated by carat before anything is weighed, because valuing one blended figure across a mixed lot can cost the seller. Here 42.5 g tests as 9ct and is valued as 9ct on its payable weight. Two further pieces in the same parcel read as gold-plated base metal, so they carry no metal value at all and are shown on the offer at zero rather than quietly absorbed into the total. Plated items are returned with anything else you decline, free and tracked.

Worked example 3: a canteen of sterling silver cutlery

Sterling silver is 92.5 per cent fine, so 310 g of sterling teaspoons is valued on the silver it actually contains against the live silver market. The trap in cutlery is weighted knife handles: a knife handle is usually a thin silver shell filled with pitch or resin, so the gross weight of a canteen is not the payable weight. Handles are weighed separately and valued on the silver actually present, which is why a 2 kg canteen does not produce a 2 kg figure. Electroplated pieces marked EPNS or A1 are not silver at all and are shown at zero.

How to check your own offer

For more on the gold price and selling by post, see the gold price and selling by post and the silver price and selling by post. Your own written offer shows the confirmed purity, the payable weight and the figure for each item, so you can check every line before you accept anything. Final offers depend on inspection, item weight, purity, hallmarks, stones, non-gold components, condition and the live precious-metal market.

Common questions