Rough estimates where possible; your final offer follows inspection.
No obligation. Free tracked return if you decline. We aim to pay within one working hour of acceptance.
GoldPaid buys Georgian gold jewellery, made between 1714 and 1837, by post from anywhere in the UK. Many Georgian pieces carry no hallmark, so the gold content is confirmed by XRF rather than read from a stamp. Mourning rings, posy rings and foiled stone settings can be worth more on the antique market than for their gold, and the written offer says so where that applies.
Send a photo on WhatsApp for a rough estimate where possible, or arrange to post your items for assessment. We confirm our purchase offer after inspection, and you decide whether to accept. Final offers depend on inspection, item weight, purity, hallmarks, stones, non-gold components, condition and the live precious-metal market.
Free Special Delivery label, usually within 30 minutesPurity tested in-house by X-ray (XRF)
How can I tell if my piece is really Georgian?Style cues, construction (closed-back settings, foiled stones, hand-engraved details) and any hallmark date letter together identify Georgian work. Send a photograph on WhatsApp and we can usually give an indicative dating before you post.
Please send us photos on WhatsApp, and we will help you.
Send photos of your items and any hallmarks. We give a rough estimate where possible; your final offer follows inspection. You do not need to arrange postage to ask us a question.
We arrange postage with you after our conversation.
Before you post
The questions people ask before they send anything, answered here rather than at the end of the page.
Can I ask first?
Yes. WhatsApp a photo to 07944 014111, 8am to 9pm, every day, and we reply with an idea of what it is worth. Nothing is posted until you decide.
Is it safe to post?
Your parcel travels by Royal Mail Special Delivery, 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.
How is it tested?
Your parcel is signed for on arrival and opened at our Bristol office, where each item is weighed and tested with an XRF analyser, an X-ray test that reads the metal without marking it. Your written offer lists each piece with its weight, purity and figure.
What if I say no?
We return everything by Royal Mail Special Delivery at our cost. Saying no costs you nothing.
When am I paid?
Only if you accept the written offer. We aim for the money to reach your bank within 24 hours of posting. We use Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed, test your items promptly on receipt, and aim to pay by Faster Payments within one working hour of your acceptance. The 24-hour target is an aim, not a guarantee: it depends on posting before the local cut-off, the applicable working-day delivery service, prompt acceptance, completed identity checks and bank processing.
How long does an offer last?
Each written offer is dated and holds for a limited time, because metal prices move. If it lapses, we re-run it at that day’s rate.
Who am I dealing with?
GOLDPAID LTD, registered in England and Wales, run by founder Rocco Clayfield. Our office is at Unit 217, Bristol Business Centre, 179 Whiteladies Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 2AG. We are postal only, so there is no counter to visit. Before we pay, we ask every seller for a photo of their passport or driving licence.
Final offers depend on inspection, item weight, purity, hallmarks, stones, non-gold components, condition and the live precious-metal market.
Short answer
Georgian gold jewellery, made between 1714 and 1837, predates much of compulsory UK hallmarking, so the metal cannot always be read from a stamp. We use XRF to confirm the gold content directly, and we flag any piece likely to be worth more on the antique market than at scrap. The route is fully postal: a free prepaid Royal Mail label in, a written offer back, bank payment on acceptance, free return if you decline.
Why Georgian pieces are different
Georgian jewellery (covering the reigns of George I, II, III and IV plus William IV, so 1714 to 1837) is the oldest category of British gold jewellery routinely encountered in private hands. Pieces in original condition are uncommon; most Georgian work that survived to the present has been reworked, recut or partly replaced at some point in the past two centuries.
The hallmarking position on Georgian pieces is variable. Compulsory hallmarking applied to London-assayed pieces of the legal weight throughout the Georgian period, but a significant share of Georgian work was produced below the legal weight (and so unmarked) or produced in regions where hallmarking enforcement was lax. Unmarked Georgian gold is common and not a sign of inauthenticity.
Foiled stones, closed backs and the Georgian construction style
Georgian diamonds and coloured stones were typically set in closed-back settings with a thin foil behind the stone to enhance reflectivity (in an era before electric light, closed-back foiled settings were the only way to make stones sparkle by candlelight). The foil is part of the piece; removing it or opening the back damages the piece historically and is not done as part of any valuation.
The XRF reading on Georgian pieces is taken on the metal mount itself. The closed-back construction prevents reading through to the foil; the metal alone is what the assay measures. Stones in Georgian settings are usually rose-cut diamonds, table-cut diamonds, or coloured paste in foil, all of which sit in specialist antique-market categories rather than modern stone-grading conventions.
Mourning rings, posy rings and seal fobs
The three most-encountered Georgian categories are mourning rings (typically gold with black enamel or jet, often inscribed with a deceased person’s name and dates), posy rings (gold bands with engraved romantic verses on the inside, often given as wedding tokens), and seal fobs (decorative gold mounts on watch chains, holding a carved hardstone seal for letter-sealing wax).
All three categories have established antique-market demand and the designed-piece value frequently exceeds scrap. Inscribed mourning rings with documented family provenance can be particularly valuable to the specialist market. We flag any piece in these categories separately on the written offer.
The scrap-or-antique decision on Georgian pieces
Almost every Georgian piece reaches the written offer with a flag: this is likely worth more on the antique market than at scrap. The metal valuation is shown for transparency, but for genuine Georgian pieces it is almost never the right answer commercially.
Specialist antique dealers, named auction houses (Bonhams, Christie’s, Woolley & Wallis, Tennants) and the better online specialist marketplaces can pay well above the scrap-metal value for Georgian pieces in clean condition with clear provenance. We suggest the specific route on the offer and you decide whether to follow it.
The process, step by step
Get in touch and show us. A WhatsApp photo of your Georgian jewellery is all we need to give you a rough estimate before anything is posted.
Get your free label. We send a prepaid Royal Mail Special Delivery label, fully tracked. If you have no printer, a QR code for the counter does the same job.
Send it at your own pace. Wrap it in any padded envelope and hand it in at a Post Office whenever it suits you.
See the written offer. Everything is weighed, metal is XRF-assayed and any stones are assessed separately, usually on the working day your parcel arrives. You then get an itemised breakdown showing exactly how the figure was reached.
Decide. Say yes and the money is sent by Faster Payments. Say no and your items come straight back, free and tracked.
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.
Postage, tracking and cover
Every parcel uses Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed, tracked from the counter to our door and signed for on arrival. 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 anything you think is worth more, contact us first and we split it across more than one prepaid label rather than send it in one parcel. The detail sits on postage and cover and is it safe to post gold?. 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.
Declining, made simple
A quick message is all it takes to decline, and you do not need to give a reason. Your items are then returned free of charge on a tracked, signed-for service, with no fee and no pressure to reconsider. What happens if I decline the offer covers it fully.
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.
Getting paid
Once you accept your written offer, we aim to pay by Faster Payments bank transfer within one working hour of your acceptance, directly to your account. No cheques to wait on, no conditions attached.
What backs the offer up
XRF spectrometry on every item, not a counter estimate
A written, itemised breakdown before you decide anything
Free tracked postage in, free tracked return out
No countdowns, no pressure, no fabricated reviews
An owner-run business whose founder, Rocco Clayfield, answers questions himself
What decides your offer
Every parcel is opened at our Bristol office and each piece is handled on its own. Nothing is averaged across the parcel.
Weight. Each item is weighed on scales. Stones, steel springs, non-gold clasps and cores are not paid as gold. The written breakdown explains the payable metal weight for each item, rather than treating everything on the scales as precious metal.
Purity. Each item is tested with an XRF analyser, which reads the metals at the points tested without marking the item. A surface reading alone cannot establish the composition of a plated or filled piece. Hallmarks, construction and different components all need to be considered alongside the test.
The market on the day. Gold and silver are priced against the live precious-metal market at the time your parcel is assessed, not at the time you posted.
Condition and intact value. Broken is fine and does not reduce a metal offer. Where a piece is worth more intact (a named maker, a collectable coin, a locket with provenance) we tell you before testing, so you can choose.
Anything that is not gold or silver. Plated, rolled-gold and base-metal items are listed on the offer at nothing and returned to you free. We never quietly keep them.
Why we do not publish a per-gram price list. A single printed rate hides the things that change the figure: hollow versus solid, stones, mixed carats in one bag, a mark that does not match the metal. We would rather show you the weight, the tested purity and the figure for each item, in writing, and let you decide. Final offers depend on inspection, item weight, purity, hallmarks, stones, non-gold components, condition and the live precious-metal market.
What you see before you decide. A written, itemised offer by WhatsApp or email: every item, its weight, its tested purity, and its figure. Accept and we aim to pay by bank transfer within one working hour. Decline and the whole parcel comes back by Royal Mail Special Delivery at our cost. No fee, no deduction, no questions.
Will you remove the foil behind the stones to assay the gold?
No. Removing the foil damages the piece historically. We assay the visible metal directly without disturbing the closed-back construction.
Are unmarked Georgian pieces worth less than hallmarked ones?
For scrap, no. Both value identically by measured metal content. For the antique market, hallmarked pieces with clear date letters often command higher prices because they are easier to authenticate.
Should I sell a Georgian mourning ring at scrap?
Almost never. Georgian mourning rings with clear inscriptions are typically worth multiples of scrap on the antique market. We flag this on the offer and suggest specialist routes.
What is a posy ring worth?
It depends on the inscription, the date, and the condition. A well-preserved Georgian posy ring with a clear romantic verse can be worth far more on the antique market than any scrap calculation.
How are fragile Georgian pieces returned?
In a small rigid box with tissue support, by tracked, signed-for Royal Mail Special Delivery at our cost. Closed-back constructions are not opened or otherwise altered.
Not the question you had? The full GoldPaid FAQ covers the rest, from postal cover and ID checks to what happens if you decline the offer.
Speak to us before you post
Please send us photos on WhatsApp, and we will help you. We give a rough estimate where possible and arrange postage with you after our conversation. Your final offer follows inspection.
Message us with a clear photo of your items on WhatsApp, or call. There is no obligation at any stage and the only commitment is your decision to accept a written offer once you have seen it.
