When you fall in love with a piece of jewelry or accidentally break it, it often ends up in the back of your junk drawer – out of sight and out of mind.
But the scrap gold collecting dust in your home could sell for hundreds or even thousands of pounds.
The amount of scrap gold sold in Britain has reached record levels, according to figures from BullionByPost, Britain’s largest online gold dealer.
The Birmingham-based company said this in the meantime The gold price is at an all-time high, this is the best time for sellers to get a good deal.
The scrap gold collecting dust in your home can be sold for hundreds or thousands of pounds
The most common scrap gold sold is unwanted or broken jewelry, rings, necklaces, and mounted sovereign coins.
With scrap gold sales reaching unprecedented levels, BullionByPost has a online calculator that gives potential sellers a value of how much their item could be worth if they enter the purity and weight in grams.
Pete Walden, Managing Director of BullionByPost, said: ‘After a dip during Covid, we have seen a 23 per cent increase in both weight and value in 2023. our biggest year for scrap gold, both by weight and value.
‘The main reason for this increase in sales is believed to be the repeated new record highs for the gold price in recent years.
‘There have been many headlines about the price of gold, which will continue to make people aware that gold is at or near its all-time high, making it an attractive time to sell.
The amount of scrap gold sold in Britain has reached record levels, according to figures from Britain’s largest online gold dealer BullionByPost.
‘The largest purchase of gold jewelery we made was 2.4kg of mixed items and purities, worth £59,984. The vast majority are usually much smaller (less than £1,000). We sell this to a refinery to be melted down and recycled.”
BullionByPost advises that the first step for those looking to sell their scrap gold would be to check whether the item carries a hallmark to indicate that it is genuine gold and has been tested by an independent insurer.
In the UK it is a legal requirement that items weighing 1 gram or more and sold as gold are stamped, although there are exceptions, such as the bullion coins and bars that we sell at BullionByPost. Other countries may have different markings.
Walden added, “The first step anyone should take to determine if they have gold items is to look for the hallmarks.
‘This gives them the first two important pieces of information they need: that the item is gold and what the purity of the gold is. Then when they weigh the item, that’s all they need to get estimates from us.
‘The quality marks are often very small, but they must stand out.
‘The most common old gold is unwanted/broken jewelry. Rings, necklaces, and other chains are by far the most likely pieces of scrap gold that people would have in their homes.
‘Other popular scrap items we see are mounted coins, where people have used a small coin such as a Sovereign or Half Sovereign as part of a chain, brooch or cufflinks.
“We are offered various strange objects from time to time, from dental gold to gold nuggets found in rivers, but we usually buy regular gold objects.”
The figures show that BullionByPost purchased 339kg of scrap gold between 2014 and 2023, with a total value of £12 million.
Walden also revealed how to tell if your item is fake gold, including if it feels unusually light for its size, or if the piece has discolored or flaked over time.
‘Gold is a very dense metal, which is part of its charm and appeal, and a gold object will usually feel quite heavy compared to its size. If you have an item that feels very light, it may not be gold.
‘You especially notice this if you have objects at hand that you know are made of real gold and that you can compare. With real gold in hand you can usually start to see differences in the feel of the density and color/luster of real gold, even in lower purities such as 9 carat.
‘Gold-plated items tend to discolour or flake over time, so if there are obvious areas of a different color beneath the surface this could indicate that it is simply gold-plated. Places like the edges or inside of a ring where it rubs against the skin are important places to look at.
‘There are other tests, such as scratching a ceramic plate, or acid test kits that you can get, but these can be destructive so we generally don’t recommend them. Ultimately, the best way to be sure is to have it professionally tested by someone like us.’