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 Victorian gold jewellery, made between 1837 and 1901, by post from anywhere in the UK. Each piece is dated from its hallmark where the marks allow and XRF-tested for its carat, usually 9ct, 15ct or 18ct. The written offer shows what the gold is worth and flags any piece an antique dealer or auction is likely to pay more for, so you can choose before anything is melted.
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 Victorian or later?Send a clear photograph of the hallmark on WhatsApp. The date letter, shield shape and assay-office mark together identify the year. Victorian pieces fall anywhere between 1837 and January 1901.
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
Victorian gold jewellery, made between 1837 and 1901, often carries value beyond its metal. We date each piece where the hallmark allows, assay it at the carat the XRF reading confirms (9ct, 15ct and 18ct are the common ones), and flag anything where the designed-piece market is likely to beat scrap. We send a free prepaid Royal Mail label, so nothing needs a shop visit, and payment goes out by bank transfer once you accept the written offer.
What makes a piece Victorian, technically
The Victorian era covers Queen Victoria’s reign, 1837 to January 1901. A piece is Victorian if its hallmark date letter falls within those years. The UK assay offices in operation during the Victorian era were London (leopard’s head), Birmingham (anchor), Sheffield (crown for silver in that era; replaced by the Tudor rose from 1 January 1975 under the Hallmarking Act 1973; for a Victorian piece the crown is what to look for), Edinburgh (castle), Chester (three wheatsheaves and sword) and Glasgow (a fish, used for silver primarily).
The standard gold carats struck during the Victorian era were 9ct (introduced 1854), 12ct and 15ct (introduced 1854, withdrawn 1932), 18ct, and 22ct. 15ct gold is particularly common on Victorian jewellery and is materially more valuable by weight than 9ct because its fine-gold content (62.5%) is much higher.
Mourning jewellery and the antique premium
The Victorian era produced a distinctive category of mourning jewellery, typically gold or pinchbeck mounts with jet, hair-work, mourning enamel and locket compartments behind glass. The most fully-developed pieces date from after Prince Albert’s death in 1861, when Victoria’s extended mourning made the style fashionable.
Mourning brooches, hair-work lockets, jet-and-gold rings and similar pieces sit in a specialist antique-market category where the designed-piece value frequently exceeds the scrap-gold value by a wide margin. A clean Victorian mourning brooch with maker’s marks can be worth ten or twenty times its gold weight at scrap. We flag any piece we believe is in that category on the written offer and explain how to sell it through a specialist route if it is.
Common Victorian pieces and their typical metal
The Victorian pieces that arrive most often are lockets (oval, heart, rectangular), bar brooches, mourning brooches, watch chains and Albert chains, pendant crosses, signet rings, plain wedding bands, posy rings (often 9ct or 15ct), and early Victorian chatelaines and seals.
Most Victorian wedding bands and plain pieces are 18ct or 22ct gold; this was the standard for everyday rings until 9ct became more common in the later Victorian decades. Decorative pieces (lockets, brooches, chains) range across all four standards (9ct, 12ct, 15ct, 18ct), and the XRF reading is the deciding test on each piece individually.
Dating a Victorian piece from the hallmark
The four parts of a full Victorian UK hallmark are: the maker’s mark (usually two or three letter initials in a shaped surround), the standard mark (a fineness number or symbol, 9, 12, 15, 18, or 22), the assay-office town mark, and the date letter (a single letter inside a shield, the shield shape changing each cycle and the letter changing each year). Together they tell you who made the piece, what carat it is, where it was tested, and in which year.
A clear close-up photograph of the hallmark on WhatsApp lets us identify a piece’s exact date before it travels. The hallmark is normally on the inside of a band, the back of a brooch pin, the edge of a locket, or the bow of a pendant.
What happens, from first message to payment
A photo and a question. Send photos of your Victorian jewellery on WhatsApp. We reply with a rough estimate and answer whatever you want to know.
A prepaid label, on request. Ask for the label when you are ready. We send a free Royal Mail Special Delivery label, tracked and signed for, or a QR code for the Post Office counter.
You post it. Any padded envelope is fine, posted whenever you choose.
We assess and write it up. Weighing and an XRF assay produce a written, itemised offer for you to read at home, usually on the working day your parcel arrives.
Your decision. Accept for payment by Faster Payments, or decline for a free, tracked, signed-for return.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Yes, slightly. 15ct is 62.5% fine gold; 14ct is 58.5%, so 15ct is worth a little more by weight.
Do Victorian pieces always carry hallmarks?
Most do, but some small or imported pieces from the era are unmarked. Unmarked Victorian gold values cleanly anyway because the XRF reading measures the metal regardless of stamp.
Are Victorian mourning brooches worth selling at scrap?
Usually no. Mourning jewellery with clear maker marks is typically worth more on the antique market than as scrap. We flag any such piece separately on the written offer.
What if my Victorian piece has stones I cannot identify?
Common Victorian decorative stones include seed pearls, turquoise, garnet, peridot, jet and hair-work. Each is noted on the offer; most have low independent market value but some pieces are antique-significant overall.
How are fragile Victorian pieces packaged for return?
Tissue-wrapped, in a small rigid box, sent by tracked, signed-for Royal Mail Special Delivery at our cost. Glass elements in lockets and brooches are returned intact.
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.
