1. Sorting
Items are grouped by fineness mark — 375, 585, 750, 916, 999 — with unmarked pieces held separately and plated items set aside. This happens before anything touches the scales, because a mixed weight cannot be unmixed afterwards.
2. Confirming purity
Marks are read carefully rather than taken at face value: they can be worn smooth, struck abroad, or applied to plated goods. UK gold hallmarks explained sets out what a full British mark contains and how it differs from a maker's stamp.
3. Weighing
Each standard is weighed on its own, on calibrated scales, in view of the customer. Trade scales read to a hundredth of a gram; on high-purity items that precision is not a detail, because 22ct holds 0.916 grams of fine gold in every gram.
4. Calculating fine gold content
Weight multiplied by fineness. Twelve grams of 750 contains nine grams of fine gold. That figure — not the item weight — is what is being bought, and it is stated to you.
5. Stones, mounts and fittings
Stones are excluded from fine gold weight. So are steel spring bars, watch movements, base metal safety chains and clasp springs. They are separated so that you are neither paid for them nor charged their weight against you.
6. Items worth more than their metal
Signed pieces, period jewellery, good stones, coins and watches are set aside and identified before any scrap figure is applied. Melting cannot be undone, and a buyer who quietly scraps a valuable piece has taken something from the seller that no rate per gram makes up for.
How an offer relates to the valuation
The valuation establishes fine gold content. What is paid for that content depends on the gold market at the time and on the cost and risk of refining and reselling — explained in spot price versus what a gold buyer pays. No offer is guaranteed and no figure on this website is an offer.
