Selling scrap gold and old jewellery

David Leander · Feb 21, 2024

Summary

• Scrap gold is damaged or broken jewellery as well as dental gold.
• The hallmarks on gold jewellery provide information about its authenticity and purity.
• There are various methods to check the authenticity of gold jewellery.
• Not only the precious metal of which the jewellery is made has a resale value, but also the precious stones.

Independent advice on selling gold: what you need to look out for

Selling scrap gold is a matter of trust. As experts in professional precious metal trading, we know the market down to the smallest detail. Since PreMeSec focuses on trading in investment gold and silver and does not purchase scrap gold, dental gold or jewellery itself, we offer you completely independent and objective advice. Our goal is to ensure that you receive a fair price for your treasures – without any self-interest on our part.

We show you how to recognise scrap gold, what testing methods are available, who buys scrap gold, how much you should get for scrap gold and what to look out for when selling gold.

Checklist: How to sell scrap gold safely and fairly

• Distinction: First, clarify whether it is scrap gold (outdated or broken jewellery, dental gold) or investment gold (coins, bars). The latter fetches higher prices without a melting deduction and can also be traded on PreMeSec.

• Choosing a buyer: Give preference to local goldsmiths or specialist dealers with a permanent shop. Avoid ‘fly-by-night dealers’ or sales in restaurants.

• Research: Check reviews and the official registration of buyers online in advance.

• Preparation: Determine the weight and purity (hallmarks) of your items yourself to get an approximate idea of the price.

• Compare: Obtain at least two to three quotes. Reputable dealers will give you time to think.

• No pressure: Don't let yourself be pressured by ‘today only’ offers.

• Security: Make sure the scales are calibrated and insist on a detailed receipt as proof for your records, as required by law. Take photos of the items before selling them.

• Gemstones: Gemstones can be very valuable. If the buyer does not make a good offer, have the stones removed from the setting and keep them.

What counts as scrap gold or old jewellery?

Old jewellery includes unfashionable, damaged or broken jewellery. Scrap gold is an alternative term, with the emphasis here on the defective condition and also includes dental gold. Everyday items such as tins, cups or money clips can also be considered scrap gold if they no longer serve their purpose. Scrap gold is melted down and reprocessed into new products.

Bars or coins are investment gold and do not count as scrap gold, as they can be resold without being melted down.

Do you own tradable coins or bars? Click here to trade directly on PreMeSec!

How can I tell if a piece of jewellery is made of gold?

The Swiss Precious Metals Control, together with the precious metals controls of other countries, has agreed on a uniform hallmarking of precious metal jewellery and articles of daily use (Hallmarking Convention). These hallmarks may, of course, only be applied to genuine objects and not to jewellery that is merely plated (gold-plated or silver-plated). Therefore, if a piece of jewellery bears a hallmark, it can be assumed that it is made entirely of this precious metal.

Hallmarks on rings, 750 hallmark on a white gold ring, 925 hallmark on a silver ring and a 950 PT hallmark on a platinum ring. © PreMeSec Ltd liab Co.

The hallmark is a number, which in Switzerland is usually between 583 and 950 and is sometimes supplemented by a stylised bar scale. The hallmark number provides information about the purity of the gold used.

Since pure gold is too soft for the production of gold jewellery, it is first alloyed with other metals. This produces different shades of colour, and the resulting gold alloy is often named after the shade, e.g. yellow gold, rose gold, red gold and white gold.

Yellow gold is called gold alloyed with equal parts of silver and copper. The more silver is added, the lighter the shade.

For rose gold, gold is alloyed with copper and sometimes also with silver or platinum.

Red gold is obtained by alloying it with a higher proportion of copper than is required for rose gold. The copper content is about 25 %, so it is gold with a fineness of 750/1000.

By adding 25 % silver, the gold gets a greenish shimmer, it is then called green gold.

White gold is made by alloying it with platinum, palladium, nickel, zinc and silver. Originally, only platinum was used, but since platinum is rare and increasingly valuable, other alloying components were sought to give the gold a whitish colour. To give the gold a silvery sheen, the jewellery is coated with rhodium in a final step, rhodium plating.

Genuine gold jewellery can therefore be recognised by the hallmarking and the colour.

Old jewellery: chains and rings made of gold, silver and platinum. © PreMeSec Ltd liab Co

What do the hallmarks on gold jewellery mean?

Carat

Carat is an outdated, but still common indication of fineness for gold products. The fineness is expressed in parts to 24. 24 carat gold is therefore pure gold, 22 carat gold consists of 91.6% pure gold. The lowest carat number that occurs in Switzerland is 9 carats. The number 9 - 24 is supplemented by k or ct.

Indication in parts of thousands

On jewellery, medals and bars, the fineness is given in parts per thousand. On every piece of jewellery you will find the hallmarked number somewhere, for rings mostly on the inside, for necklaces and pendants mostly on the clasp. For red gold, for example, this is 750, as mentioned above.

While gold and silver usually do not bear any additional letters, but can be distinguished solely by the alloy specified for the precious metal, the fineness indication for platinum and palladium must be supplemented either by the word platinum or palladium or their abbreviations Pt or Pd.

Composite goods are an exception. These include, for example, two-coloured necklaces and bracelets whose links consist alternately of gold and silver links. In such cases, both precious metal finenesses must be indicated together with the abbreviation, whereby the metal predominating in terms of quantity must be mentioned first; the hallmarking can then look as follows, for example: Ag 925 / Au 750.

...

* 14 carats would be 583.3/1000, but are defined as 585 in the Swiss precious metal control legislation.

Abroad, other finenesses than those listed in the table are sometimes used (e.g. gold with 333), but their commercial sale in Switzerland is prohibited by the Precious Metals Control Act.

Calculating the value of scrap gold

With the information on fineness provided by the hallmarks, it is relatively easy to determine the value of scrap gold. To do this, weigh the scrap gold and then calculate weight in grams / 1000 * fineness, which gives you the weight of pure gold in the scrap gold. You can then multiply this by the price per gram. It is important to distinguish whether the gold needs to be melted down (scrap gold like dental gold, unfashionable jewellery) or whether it can be resold directly.

The market value per gram is published on our website:

https://premesec.ch/en/gold-bar-1-g

https://premesec.ch/en/silver-bar-1-g

https://premesec.ch/en/platinum-bar-1-g

In our experience, a reputable scrap gold buyer should pay 90% - 97% of the gold price for gold that needs to be melted down. The 3% to 10% retained by the scrap gold buyer covers their services, melting costs, exchange rate fluctuation risk and profit.

For jewellery or everyday items that can be resold directly after cleaning and polishing, the seller should receive at least the full gold price.

Where to sell scrap gold

Scrap gold is best sold to a local buyer with their own shop, or if you have had good experiences with a particular goldsmith, they are also a good option. Especially when it comes to jewellery that can be resold, a goldsmith or jewellery dealer can pay a better price.

However, it is always worth obtaining several offers from different buyers. Do not hesitate to reject an offer that you consider insufficient. The service of estimating the purchase value and making an offer is included in the purchase price. Never allow yourself to be pressured by time-limited offers that are only valid immediately and no longer later in the day; these are dubious business practices.

Gold buyers weigh the precious metals offered to them, for which they must use calibrated scales. Therefore, make sure that the scales have a calibration mark from the calibration office. Trustworthy buyers make no secret of the weight and you can see what the scales show.

If you follow all these tips, there should be no nasty surprises, but if disputes do arise afterwards, it is helpful to have taken a photo of the items sold and to have only made the sale in exchange for a detailed receipt. Detailed receipts are mandatory for professional buyers and must also include a description of the jewellery sold, its weight, fineness and purchase price.

Since 1 January 2024, commercial purchasers of old precious metals must be registered with the Swiss Precious Metal Control or have the appropriate authorisation. As Parliament rejected a prior reputation check of purchasers, not all those on the list are necessarily reputable. This led to many complaints during an inspection in the canton of Zurich in 2025.

However, a purchaser who does not even meet the minimum requirements and is not on the list is likely to be untrustworthy. The list of purchasers can be found at the bottom of the Swiss Customs website, along with other useful tips.

Significance of gemstone certificates

Some pieces of jewellery are sold together with a certificate of the gemstones incorporated. Since gemstones cannot be refined and standardised like precious metals, each stone must be individually valued according to international standards. In the case of particularly valuable stones, a certificate is issued by a gemological institute for this purpose. These certificates make it easier to determine the value of a stone.

The stones are evaluated according to the following criteria: Size, colour, purity (presence of inclusions and their size), treatment (certain stones can be beautified by chemical or thermal treatment, but are less valuable than stones that achieve the same beauty without treatment), natural or synthetic production, shape, cut.

In Switzerland, for example, there is the Swiss Gemmological Institute in Basel, which evaluates gemstones.

https://www.ssef.ch/
https://www.sbiseo.ch/

If you have bought a piece of jewellery with a certificate, be sure to keep this certificate. If you do not have a certificate for the stone, have the stones removed by the buyer and take them home with you.

Colourful cut gemstones. © laminaria-vest - Pixabay

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Gold watches

Watches with gold cases and gold bands can also be sold as scrap gold. However, a better price can often be obtained if the watch is sold through a specialised dealer, watchmaker or auctioneer. Defective watches can also fetch a price significantly higher than the material price after repair.

Testing methods for precious metals

In addition to hallmarks and stamps, goldsmiths and scrap gold buyers can also use technical methods such as acid tests or magnetic scales to check the authenticity of precious metal items. As new methods are constantly being developed for this purpose, only a few will be mentioned here. It should be noted that a single test is hardly conclusive.

Acid test

Gold is very resistant to acids. By rubbing gold off the piece of jewellery and then dissolving the abrasion with acid, the authenticity and the alloy can be determined. This test requires material to be rubbed off the piece of jewellery and is therefore not non-destructive. Another disadvantage of the test is that, of course, only material can be removed from the surface and thus it is not possible to determine whether the piece of jewellery is perhaps only gold-plated.

Calculating the density

Since every material has its own density, the density can be used to determine the material. To do this, however, the volume of the object must be calculated, which is very time-consuming in the case of shapeless jewellery or jewellery set with precious stones.

Another problem is that tungsten has a very similar density to gold, so it can be difficult to distinguish gold from tungsten using density alone.

Magnetic scale

Gold has a similar density to tungsten, and the density of silver is close to that of lead. Unlike tungsten and lead, however, the two precious metals are diamagnetic. That is, they repel magnets instead of attracting them. The test with the magnetic balance makes use of this effect. The repulsive or attractive force of an object is measured with a very precise balance.

Sound conductivity

The sound conductivity of a material is just as specific as its density. However, since it requires a body of a certain size, it is most suitable for ingots. Thus, nuclei of another metal can be detected in the ingot.

X-ray fluorescence analysis

In this analysis, the material is bombarded with X-rays. As a physical reaction to the bombardment, the material emits element-specific fluorescence radiation. From this, the material can be determined. This examination option is non-destructive and can also provide information about the composition in deeper layers of the sample. The disadvantage, however, is that the analytical equipment is very expensive.

Electrical eddy current measurement

The electrical conductivity of precious metals can be easily distinguished from the conductivity of base metals. Devices that induce a current in an object with the help of a magnetic field can therefore be used to determine the material. This test method is non-destructive and can also be used through packaging.

Frequently asked questions about scrap gold

Where can I sell scrap gold and old gold jewellery?

• The best place is the goldsmith from whom you have already bought jewellery. Especially if you have already bought jewellery from a goldsmith and thus have a basis of trust, it is a good idea to also sell your scrap gold at this goldsmith. This has the advantage that particularly beautiful and sought-after pieces can be refurbished by the goldsmith and sold again, thus eliminating the need for expensive melting down.

  Unfortunately, there are many negative reports about gold buyers who distribute flyers and buy gold in back rooms, which is why caution is advised here.

Are the gemstones in the jewellery still worth anything?

• Depending on the design of the jewellery, it may contain more or less valuable gemstones. In jewellery with diamonds or other very valuable gemstones, the value of the stone can far exceed the value of the metal. Unfortunately, the value of gemstones is not so easy to determine for the layman, especially here it is advisable to resort to the expertise of a trustworthy goldsmith.

Should defective gold watches be sold as scrap gold?

• No, gold watches are often worth more if they are not melted down. A repair or revision before selling can also be worthwhile. Especially popular brands fetch prices that are significantly higher than the material price.

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