How much can i sell my 18 karat gold bracelet with the stamp 750 that weighs 52 grams for? Thanks! — From Cory in Seattle, WA

Hi Cory,

This is a great question to plug into our gold conversion calculator. This is because there are a few calculations that you have to do before knowing what your gold is worth.

You first have to convert the weight of gold jewelry into troy ounces without any other gems or stones. That is the unit of measurement used for precious metals.

Then you have to use the current price of gold and multiply it to how much actual gold you have. With your bracelet being 18 Karat, your piece is 74.88% gold. The stamp on your bracelet 750 indicates that it is 18 Karat gold that is about 75% pure gold.

Your 52 grams converts into 1.67183 troy ounces. According to our payout schedule we would offer you about 85% of the pure gold value. For larger lots we can sometimes offer over 90% of the gold value.

Note that the calculator provides an approximate value for the amount of fine (or pure) gold or in your item. It does not factor in intrinsic value that may apply to rare collectibles and coins or branded jewelry.

*Price of gold used in this calculation may not reflect the current price of gold as it changes daily.

Thanks for your question. Here are some other blog posts that might help you in finding the value of your gold bracelet.

http://www.precious-metal-refining.info/what-are-my-14k-gold-wedding-rings-worth/
http://www.precious-metal-refining.info/value-of-14-k-gold-jewelry-precious-metal-refining-blog/

*Image displayed is only a representation of the items described in this blog post and may not be true images of the items in question.

What karat weight are gold teeth? From Hank in Wichita, Kansas

Hi Hank,

Because dental gold is not marked 10k or 14k like gold jewelry, it is more difficult to assess the karat weight unless your dentist tells you this information beforehand. It can even be hard for any pawn shop or jeweler to assess if they do not have the right equipment to measure exactly what other metals are alloyed with the gold in your teeth.

Most dental gold is 16k gold which is 66.66% gold. However, we find dental gold to be as high as 85% gold while other dental gold items have been as low as 15%. We run tests with an XRF analytical machine to determine how much gold is available to refine.

Dentists should give your dental gold back to you if it is removed or replaced. Whether or not they intentionally keep it, you should make sure to ask for it back. They may also be able to tell you what karat weight is in the teeth they use.

I want to sell gold filled and gold plated necklaces from the 1950s, made in Korea. I have dozens of them equaling several pounds. From Becky in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin

Hi Becky,

It is nearly impossible to recover any relevant amount of gold from plated items because the gold is plated so thinly that there are only a few microns of actual gold in each plated item. Furthermore, the cost to refine plated items is higher than with 10 Karat - 24 Karat gold so there is no value in refining it.

Gold filled jewelry on the other hand, may have some value. Typically, a few pieces of gold filled jewelry will not yield much return but if you have pounds, you should get some return. I suggest using the US Postal Service’s flat rate shipping boxes. They are great for shipping small, heavy items such as jewelry. Remember to request the “Delivery Signature Required” option when you ship.

Because we can not take your gold plated jewelry items, we would recommend selling them as costume jewelry on EBay or local consignment shops. Hope this helps!

I’m just a humble jewelry designer from NY who is trying to get used to all this stuff! From Natalie in New York, Arkansas

Hi Natalie,

Don’t worry if you don’t pickup on everything right away. It takes sometime to get to know the precious metal industry. Here are some helpful tips that I’ve put together for you and other jewelry designers out there that may have some scrap precious metal to refine.

It’s great that you are learning and researching about this now so you have all the tools at hand. We work with jewelry designers, jewelry sellers and gold party representatives from all over, let us know if you have any questions about precious metal!

Keep in mind that precious metals include: gold, silver, platinum, palladium and rhodium.

Pay attention to where you scrap is going.

From small gold chain links to shavings of silver, try to account for it all. For larger pieces of gold, silver or platinum that you cannot use in creating or fixing jewelry its best to keep them as separated as you can. We recommend working on smooth, dark surfaces so you can see scrap easier.

Don’t throw anything out, it could be precious!

Even your facility that you resize, shape and design jewelry in can contain valuable precious metal scrap. Areas where precious metal can be accumulating include sink traps, floor mats, carpets, rags, floor sweeps and vacuum bags. Think about this when you’re cleaning your facilities. If you regularly clip, size and shape precious metal chances are small pieces of it have gotten away from you. As precious metal refiners we can extract even the smallest amounts of precious metal from these items.

Keep your stones and gems.

As precious metal refiners, we only return payments for metal materials, not stones and gems. To reclaim the value on these items, make sure you remove them before sending them to any metal refinery.

I have a large quantity (about 40+ lbs.) of sterling and 925 silver jewelry. And I have over 1000 dwts of clean scrap gold (no stones). Also let me know if there are any other hidden charges.  From Betty

Hi Betty,

We pay 75% for sterling silver and between 80-90% and sometimes more for large quantities of gold. For those of you that are unfamiliar with “dwts,” this is a unit of measurement used in the industry that is an abbreviation for pennyweight. You might also see “pwt” or “PW” used. Pennyweight is a unit of mass which is the same as 24 grains, 1/240th of a troy pound, 1/20th of a troy ounce, approximately 0.055 ounces or approximately 1.555 grams. We have a previous blog post about other precious metal terms.

It sounds like you may have encountered some other dealers or refineries with hidden charges. With Arch Enterprises all you pay for is shipping. For consumers items like jewelry, we will review your material and mail payment to you in 3 business days or less after the material is received. There are no hidden charges!

I watch gold fever on the outdoor channel on Saturday morning. If I had the supplies, I think I would try panning myself. I asked the pawn shop if I could bring it there if I found any gold. She said they could test it but didn’t say if she would buy it. Do I deal with a pawn shop or you guys with raw ore like that? Giving 1 oz as an example, and todays prices, how much does testing cost and the net cost after testing? — Sue

Hi Sue!

You can send us samples of the raw ore and we can analyze them for $75-$150 depending on the size of the rock you send us. If we end up refining it we will not charge you the fee for testing. We can return to you a large percentage of gold value after refining but the exact amount will depend on the quality and volume you find.

Be careful when dealing with pawn shops and selling raw gold to them. Because they will most likely sell the gold to a refiner like Arch Enterprises themselves, it’s in your best interest to sell directly to a refiner without middleman pawnshops. Hope this helps, good luck panning.

Thanks!

I am a dentist and have some old gold crowns that I have recently taken out of patients mouths. At what point does it become profitable to send them in for refining.  Do I need to have 20-30 crowns before it makes sense? — Dr. Norton

It can be hard to judge how much precious metal is in dental gold scrap because so many different alloys are used in the industry. Typically dental gold alloys range in the 10 to 22 karat range with 16 karat gold being the most common.  A 10 karat crown would have 41.6% gold while a 22 karat crown would have 91.6% so there can be a big difference in value even for two crowns of the exact same weight.

Dentists also use a lot of silver-colored alloys for crowns and bridges that can have high precious metal content.   Despite their color, they may have a fairly sizeable proportion of gold or be made with other precious metals like platinum or palladium.  Unfortunately, without testing equipment, it is often difficult to tell the difference between these precious alloys and other “white” alloys that have no scrap value whatsoever.

Of course, the price of gold on the day your gold crowns are received for refining will also impact the value.

The last major variable is who you are going to sell this scrap to.  If you sell it to the same company that is supplying you with other dental products, then they are probably just going to take a cut and pass the crowns to a precious metal refiner.    However, if you only have one or two, they may batch it with crowns and bridges from other dentists as many refiners will not accept small quantities.
If you work with us at Arch Enterprises, you do not need a minimum quantity of dental gold to receive payment. We will evaluate your items and pay you based on the weight and quality of the gold in the crowns. We have analytic equipment that can evaluate each piece individually for the gold, silver, platinum and palladium content. We pay 85% of the metal value back to you in a check in 2-3 business days.  We are endorsed by dental associations and have worked regularly with many dentists.

If you need some basic guidelines, let’s assume that the average crown weighs 2.5 grams or about .08 troy ounces (the value in which gold is traded) and that the price for the day is $1,000 per troy ounce.  Based on this, a

• A 2.5 gram crown made of 10 karat alloy (41.6% gold) would be worth (.08 x.416 x 1,000) or $33.28 before refining costs of approximately 15%
• A 2.5 gram crown made of 16 karat alloy (66.6% gold) would be worth (.08 x.666 x 1,000) or $53.28 before refining costs of approximately 15%
• A 2.5 gram crown made of 22 karat alloy (66.6% gold) would be worth (.08 x.916 x 1,000) or $73.28 before refining costs of approximately 15%

I have a 14 karat gold ring that weighs 0.3 ounces on my postal scale. Can you tell me what the value of gold in this ring is and what I should expect to get for it from a refiner? - Bob in Columbia, MO

To determine the value of gold in your 14K gold ring, there are a few issues to consider:

• Weight - Unfortunately postal scales are not accurate enough when one is considering the valuing of a gold item, but in this case, we measured the ring that you sent in and found it to actually did weigh 8 grams or 0.2822 ounces.

• Percentage of Gold - 14K Gold is supposed to contain 58.24% gold while the rest is typically made up of copper, zinc, nickel, and other metals.  We ran your ring through our X-Ray analyzer and found that it actually contained 66.89% gold.  See Video Clip.

• Price of Gold - On July 22, the price of gold closed at $951.42 per ounce.  Keep in mind that gold is valued in troy ounces and Americans typically think of an ounce as what is termed a avoirdupois ounce.  Troy ounces actually weigh a little more than avoirdupois ounces so you actually have less than .2822 troy ounces of gold.  To get your value in troy ounces, you would actually have to multiply .2822 avoirdupois ounces by .912.

So, the amount of pure gold in your particular 14K gold ring weighing .2822 avoirdupois ounces with a gold percentage of 66.89% was 0.18877 ounces.  To figure out its value in troy ounces, we mulitplied this number by .912 to get 0.172 Troy Ounces.  Mulitplying this by today’s rate for gold of $951.52 and your gold is worth $163.79.

Of course, the refiner needs to melt this into a form that someone wants and make a profit so you should expect anywhere from 70% to 90% of this value from a refiner.  Most refiners won’t deal in quantities this low.  At Arch Enterprises, we do, but we pay on a scale that ranges from 80% for those who send in less than 1 ounce of pure gold to over 90% for those sending in over 2 ounces.