Estate jewellery for probate: a free written metal figure, by post

Start with a question, not a parcel

The first step is a conversation, not a commitment. Send a photo of your probate and estate jewellery on WhatsApp, or call, and you will get a quick indicative figure and a straight answer to anything you want to ask. You decide what happens next.

Because GoldPaid works entirely by post across the UK, you do all of this from home, in your own time. No shop, no queue, and nobody watching over your shoulder while you think.

What a probate valuation of jewellery is

For Inheritance Tax, each asset is valued at the price it might reasonably be expected to fetch if sold in the open market (Inheritance Tax Act 1984, section 160). For jewellery, GOV.UK puts it plainly: work out how much you would have got if you had sold it, valued on the day the person died, and search for similar items on online marketplaces (GOV.UK). The IHT400 Notes add that this is the realistic selling price, not an insurance or replacement value, so an old insurance schedule showing what a ring would cost new is the wrong number.

It is not automatically scrap value either. A worn 9ct chain has little second-hand value beyond the gold in it, so its selling price and its metal value come out close. A signed piece, a known watch brand or a good diamond can sell for more than its metal, and that difference belongs in the estate figure.

Two figures, and why they are different

A figure for the estate and an offer to buy answer different questions. Where you ask for both, GoldPaid sets them out separately on the same document.

The two rarely match, because metal prices move. Because the document shows the rate and the date used for each, an executor can explain the difference months later.

Which HMRC form jewellery goes on

Jewellery, watches, silverware and coins are household and personal goods. Where full estate details are needed, they go on schedule IHT407, which is used with form IHT400 (GOV.UK). IHT405 is the schedule for houses, land and buildings; nothing from a jewellery box goes on it.

• IHT400 with IHT407 is needed if Inheritance Tax is due, or if one of GOV.UK’s listed conditions applies, such as gifts of over £250,000 in the 7 years before death or an estate worth more than £3 million (GOV.UK).
• Excepted estates. GOV.UK says most estates are excepted estates. Form IHT205 is only for deaths on or before 31 December 2021 (GOV.UK). For later deaths, if you apply for probate you report the estimated value in the application, online or on form PA1P or PA1A (GOV.UK).
• Individual items. IHT407 asks for each item of jewellery valued at £1,500 or more to be listed separately, with a copy of any professional valuation. Coins and medals go in its box for antiques, works of art and collections, and jointly owned items go on IHT404 instead.
• Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own probate procedures, but Inheritance Tax applies across the UK.

GoldPaid does not give tax or legal advice and cannot complete forms for you. Where there is an estate solicitor or accountant, they decide what is entered where. The practitioner note on valuing jewellery for IHT407 goes further into HMRC practice.

Do you need a professional valuation?

Not always. HMRC’s IHT400 Notes say you do not have to get a professional valuation for ordinary household and personal goods where you can use publicly available information to estimate the value, as long as you use the open market value at the date of death. They advise a professional valuation if you think any item may be worth more than £1,500, or you are not sure. For a box of worn chains, odd earrings and a sterling bracelet, an itemised figure showing weight, hallmarks, XRF-tested purity and the rate used is a clear record of how you reached your number.

Use a registered valuer where any piece may be worth more than £1,500, where jewellery or watches are signed or branded, where there are notable stones or collector interest, where the estate is near the Inheritance Tax threshold, or where beneficiaries disagree. The NAJ Institute of Registered Valuers directory lists jewellery, watch and silverware valuers, and RICS Find a Surveyor lists RICS-regulated firms for antiques and art. The IHT400 Notes say to tell the valuer you want the open market value of the items at the date of death. If your items call for a valuer, we will tell you.

Free written figure, paid report or formal valuation

• GoldPaid written figure. The metal content and value of each piece, at the date-of-death rate if you ask for it, with a separate offer to buy if you want one. Free, including the prepaid label and the tracked return. Not independent: we buy gold and silver.
• GoldPaid XRF Probate Pack. A paid XRF report on each item, laid out for schedule IHT407, with metal values at the test date and no offer to buy. The fee is fixed and shown on its page. It is still our test, not a registered valuation.
• A registered valuer from the NAJ or RICS directories. A written valuation that states its basis, such as open market value at the date of death, for the valuer’s fee. Independent, as long as the valuer is not also buying.

Some precious-metal dealers publish probate valuation fees. On 11 September 2026, Gold Traders’ probate valuations page quoted £150 for the first hour of work and £100 per hour after that, with the fees refunded if the items are later sold to it. Hatton Garden Metals’ probate page quoted £220 plus VAT for estates up to £10,000, £280 plus VAT from £10,000 to £30,000, £320 plus VAT from £30,000 to £50,000 and a price on application above that, with the valuation carried out at its Hatton Garden store. Both firms also buy gold, so the same independence point applies to them. Fees change, so check each firm’s current page.

How to tell what is precious metal before you post

Most of an estate box can be sorted in ten minutes with a lamp and a magnifier. The marks are usually inside a ring shank, on a chain clasp, on the back of a pendant bale or on the underside of a spoon handle.

• Gold. 375, 585, 750, 916 or 999, often with 9ct, 14ct, 18ct or 22ct alongside.
• Silver. 925 for sterling and 958 for Britannia, or 800 and 830 on many continental pieces. British silver usually carries a lion passant and a town mark as well.
• Platinum. 950, 900 or PLAT. Heavy for its size and a duller white than white gold.
• Not precious metal. EPNS, A1, silver plate, gold plated, GP, RGP and 1/20 12k GF. These carry no metal value however convincing they look.
• Unmarked pieces. Genuine gold and silver can have no readable mark, worn away or never struck. Send them anyway; an XRF test settles it in seconds.

Do not clean, polish or dismantle anything, and do not throw away what looks like costume. For the marks themselves, see the gold hallmark guide and XRF testing explained.

What GoldPaid can do for an estate

• A free written, itemised figure for the gold and silver in each piece: weight, XRF-tested purity, the rate used and the date that rate applies to.
• The metal value at the date-of-death rate where you ask for it, set out as its own figure.
• A separate offer to buy, if the family wants the option of selling.
• A plain flag on anything that looks worth more than its metal, with a suggestion to have a registered valuer see it.
• Free tracked return of everything if the family decides not to sell.

What this figure is not

• Independent. GoldPaid buys gold and silver, so the figure comes from a business that may offer for the same items. If the estate needs an independent valuation, use a registered valuer.
• A formal valuation. GoldPaid is a precious-metals buyer, not a chattels valuer, and does not describe its document as a valuation for Inheritance Tax.
• Tax or legal advice, completed HMRC forms, or a view on whether tax is due.
• Gemstone, antique or designer pricing. The document covers metal content and notes significant stones rather than pricing them as collectors’ items.
• A route around provenance. GoldPaid asks about ownership as a matter of course, particularly with medals, church silver and memorial pieces, and cannot buy items without clear ownership.

What affects the figures

Both figures rest on the same measured facts: the weight, the purity tested by XRF rather than assumed from a stamp, the hallmarks, the stones and non-metal parts that are not payable, and the rate on the relevant date. Final offers depend on inspection, item weight, purity, hallmarks, stones, non-gold components, condition and the live precious-metal market. Nothing can be guaranteed before the items have been seen.

Who this is for

Executors and administrators, solicitors who want a metal record for the file, families working through a parent’s jewellery box, and clearance firms handling the contents of a property. There is no deadline for posting: take the time you need and post when the family is ready. Pieces staying in the family can still be listed and simply come back to you. For a property clearance, see house clearance jewellery buyer; where the family has decided to sell, probate and inheritance covers that route, and the executor’s guide has a printable checklist.

The full process, start to finish

1. Ask, then send photos. Message us on WhatsApp with a few clear photos of your probate and estate jewellery. Lay items flat, in daylight if you can, and include any hallmarks or carat stamps in shot. We reply with a quick indicative figure and answer anything you want to ask. There is no charge and no obligation.
2. Request the prepaid label. When you are ready, we email a free Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed label, tracked and signed for. No printer is needed: ask for a QR code and the Post Office counter prints it for you.
3. Pack and post, tracked. Wrap items in any padded envelope or a small box and attach the label. Hand the parcel in over the Post Office counter so you get a receipt with the tracking number. Keep that receipt. There is no deadline.
4. We weigh, test and value. On arrival each item is weighed and tested by XRF spectrometry to confirm purity. You receive a written, itemised offer showing the weight, the purity and the figure for each item, usually on the working day your parcel arrives.
5. Accept or decline. Accept and you are paid by bank transfer via Faster Payments. Decline and everything is returned to you free of charge by tracked, signed-for post. The choice is entirely yours, and you do not need to give a reason.

New to posting valuables? Read the flagship guide on selling gold by post in the UK for a fuller walk-through of every step.

Your parcel is signed for on arrival and opened at our Bristol office, where each item is weighed and XRF-tested before the written offer is prepared.

What the offer is built on

Every offer is measured: confirmed purity from an XRF assay, accurate weight, and the live precious-metal market on the day we test, with our margin already inside the figure. You read each figure in a written, itemised breakdown before you decide anything. For how the market moves and what it means for selling by post, see the gold price and selling by post and the silver price and selling by post.

For estate work the same XRF test gives two figures on one document: the metal value at the date-of-death rate, where you ask for it, and a separate offer at the day’s rate, should the family want to sell. Each item has its own line with weight, tested purity, the rate used and the date it applies to, so a solicitor or accountant can follow the working. It records metal content; it is not an independent or formal valuation.

One parcel gets one written figure, itemised piece by piece. Your offer reflects the weight and purity we measure and the live precious-metal market on the day, with our margin already inside the figure, so nothing further is taken off. For coins, watches and signed or collectable pieces, send a photo on WhatsApp first and we will tell you how we would value them before you post anything.

Cover in transit

The prepaid label is Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed: full tracking and a signature on delivery. 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. For higher-value items, please message us first so the parcel can be split across more than one prepaid label before it travels. Postage and cover explains it fully. If a parcel is lost on its way to us, the compensation claim goes to Royal Mail from you, the sender, using your Post Office receipt, and we give you our tracking records and help you make it. Lost parcels, step by step.

No obligation, ever

You are free to walk away at any point before you accept. Decline the offer and everything is repacked and returned to you free of charge, fully tracked and signed for. There is no assessment fee and no sales pressure afterwards. The detail is on what happens if I decline the offer.

The written offer is dated and holds for a limited time, because metal prices move. If it lapses before you decide, we re-run it against the live precious-metal market on the day, at no charge. You can also accept part of a parcel and decline the rest, with no minimum and no penalty for splitting it.

Payment, once you accept

When you say yes to the written offer, GoldPaid aims to pay by Faster Payments bank transfer within one working hour of your acceptance, to your nominated account. You give those details only at the point you accept, never as a condition of getting an offer.

Other guides for estates and inherited jewellery

Each of these answers a different part of the same job. Pick the one that matches where you are.

• Sell inherited and probate jewellery by post: the overview, for a family or an executor ready to sell some or all of it.
• Sell inherited jewellery in your own time: for a beneficiary who already holds the pieces.
• An executor’s guide to valuing and selling jewellery: authority, telling the beneficiaries, and the records to keep.
• Clearing a parent’s house: what to keep, what to check, and agreeing it as a family.
• House clearance jewellery buyer: mixed lots from a clearance, sent exactly as found.
• For probate solicitors and will writers: a written, itemised metal record for the client file.
• Do you need probate or a death certificate to sell inherited jewellery?: the paperwork question, answered.
• Can you sell inherited gold before probate is granted?: the answer for executors, administrators and beneficiaries in England and Wales.
• How to value jewellery for probate: the two figures an executor needs, and when to use a qualified valuer.
• How to sell inherited gold jewellery safely: a step-by-step guide for families.

When you are ready, there is one step to take: request a free prepaid Royal Mail label, or send photos on WhatsApp first if you would rather ask before posting. Every piece is XRF-tested and you receive a written, itemised valuation. Nothing is sold unless you accept it, and anything declined comes back free by Royal Mail Special Delivery. For everyday gold that is not part of an estate, the general route is selling gold by post.

Why sell by post with GoldPaid

Three differences from a counter sale. You see a measured valuation in writing, not a verbal estimate. You decide at home, with nobody waiting. And if you decline, the return is free, tracked and signed for, so obtaining the valuation costs you nothing.

Sources

1. Inheritance Tax Act 1984, section 160, checked 11 September 2026
2. GOV.UK: Estimate the estate’s value, checked 11 September 2026
3. GOV.UK: Check if you need to send full details of the estate, checked 11 September 2026
4. GOV.UK: Apply for probate (forms PA1P and PA1A), checked 11 September 2026
5. GOV.UK: Report an excepted estate for deaths on or before 31 December 2021 (IHT205), checked 11 September 2026
6. HMRC: IHT400 and the IHT400 Notes (household and personal goods, page 74), checked 11 September 2026
7. HMRC: schedule IHT407, household and personal goods (July 2018 edition), checked 11 September 2026
8. HMRC Inheritance Tax Manual IHTM21041, checked 11 September 2026
9. NAJ: Find a Jewellery Valuer (Institute of Registered Valuers), checked 10 September 2026
10. RICS Find a Surveyor: antiques and art, checked 11 September 2026
11. Gold Traders: probate valuations, checked 11 September 2026
12. Hatton Garden Metals: probate evaluation, checked 11 September 2026

Common questions