But there are some types of gold and silver items that are generally worthless. Usually this can be determined by the stamping on a price of gold or silver product. Stamping originated in the 1900’s to indicate what is in a piece of jewelry, and in most places it is the law to have to stamp gold or silver items.

Gold, Silver, and Platinum Stamps

Gold jewelry is marked with a number or a karat number to indicate that % of gold that makes up the jewelry.

You can read this handy gold conversion chart to understand what these markings mean. If your piece of jewelry has one of the markings below, it means that it does contain some amount of precious metals, which is gold, silver or platinum. The types of markings you may find include:

• .917 means 22K
• .585 means 14K
• .417 means 10K
• .375 means 9K
• .333 means 8K
• PT950 – indicates platinum content
• Plat950 – indicates platinum content
• 950 – indicates platinum content
• Platinum – indicates platinum content
• Plat – indicates platinum content
• 5% Irid-Plat – indicates platinum content
• Iridium Platinum
• 925 means Sterling Silver

Gold Stamps with Little to No Value, or Antique Value

There are a few markings or stamps on gold items that indicate that the items contain very little gold. These include:

• (GF) Gold Filled – is made by joining or bonding, under heat and pressure, a layer or layers of a karat gold to a base metal. This “sandwich” is then rolled or drawn to the required thickness. Gold Filled wire is made by forming a cup or tube of gold with a core of base metal. When drawn to size, the wire is gold around its entire diameter.
• (GP) Gold Plated – Gold plating is a method of depositing a thin layer of gold onto the surface of another metal, most often copper or silver (to make silver-gilt), by chemical or electrochemical means.
• (RGP) Rolled Gold Plated
• (RP) Rolled Plated
• Gold Counterfeits: 999, 999 Gold, or 999 Solid Gold – indicates pure gold, but plenty of counterfeiters use this markings.
• (HE) Heavy Gold Plated
• (1/10) or (1/10 GF) 10k Gold Filled – “Gold filled” applies only to items composed of a layer of gold pressed (not alloyed) onto a base metal where the weight of the gold comprises at least 1/20th of the total weight of the item. Fineness must be shown by stamp, e.g. “1/20 12 k G.F.” means the gold layer is 12 karat gold and comprises 1/20th of the total weight of the item.
• (1/20) Gold Filled
• (EP) Electroplated – “Gold electroplate” or “gold flash” or “gold washed” mean a gold coating that is 10 k or better gold at least 0.000007 inches thick. A variant, “heavy gold electroplate” (H.G.E.P.) is at least 0.0001 inches thick.

Silver Stamps with Little to No Value, or Antique Value

If your item contains one of the markings below, it does not mean it is necessarily worthless. Your item either contains too little silver to be worth melting for silver value, or is an antique piece that can get you more money by dealing with antique dealers rather than precious metal buyers. Some of these markings are from companies (Rogers Silver) that date back many, many decades – so understand what you have before tossing it out!

• Silver-Plated
• Rogers Silver
• Coin Silver
• 900
• 915
• Mexico
• 800
• International Silver

You need cash now and want to sell gold and silver for good money. Here’s how to do it!

Many of us have jewelry boxes that have been collecting dust for ages. Jewelry can be very expensive to fix. Some pieces of gold and silver jewelry that you find have gone out of style, while other pieces are broken and unusable. In the case of earrings, you may have lost an earring so a single earring is pretty useless to you. Watches die out and aren’t worth fixing.

The process is simple. Scour your home for all of the pieces you want to sell in your jewelry boxes, attic, or wherever. Separate the pieces into junk gold and silver you want to sell for cash quickly, and other pieces you may want to hold onto because it’s a high-quality piece or has sentimental value.

Separate by Type of Gold and Silver

Gold and silver jewelry comes in a wide variety of metals. While the pieces are made up of gold and silver, they can be alloyed with other metals to make them more or less valuable. Look closely at the pieces to identify the quality of the gold or silver.

In the case of gold jewelry, 8K, 10K and 14K is the lower quality and less pure. 14K gold is only 58.33% pure gold. On the other hand, 24K is pure, 100% gold. Click here to read more about gold purity and gold color. In the United States, 14K is the lowest purity of gold that can be considered “jewelry,” but that doesn’t mean you can’t sell it!

Silver has a similar system for identifying its purity. Sterling silver is less than pure silver, while .999 Silver is as close to pure silver as you’re going to get.

You can also sell platinum pieces of gold because platinum is another precious metal that is actually more valuable than gold.

Weigh Your Gold and Silver

This can be a little difficult if you don’t have a proper scale. Unless you have several pounds of gold and silver, then your typical bathroom scale won’t do the trick. You can spend $40 on a digital scale but it won’t be worth the investment. There are generic metal scales available at your local office supply store that can be used to give you a rough estimate, and they shouldn’t cost more than a few dollars.

Wait for the Right Time

Gold and silver prices change daily, but the prices a jewelry store or refiner will pay may not change as often. No one can predict the stock market, so it can be impossible to tell where the prices are going. In any case, RIGHT NOW is a good time to sell. Gold is hovering around some of the highest rates it has ever been (around $950-$975 per ounce as of mid-July 2008). You can hold onto your gold for a while to see what happens, so it really depends on how badly you need cash.

Shop Your Gold and Silver Around, then Sell for Maximum Cash

You have two options for selling your unwanted gold. One is the jewelry store, and the other is an online refiner.

For high-quality pieces, you should open up the phone book and shop your gold around to a couple of local jewelry stores. Jewelry pieces that are antiques or have quality-craftsmanship can be worth more then the actual metal they are made out of. If your piece is one-of-a-kind, then your best bet is shopping it around to jewelry stores. When a jeweler gives you an estimate, they should weigh the gold and silver out in front of you. If they do not, be weary and move on.

For lower-quality, broken, and junk gold and silver pieces, you can sell your gold to an online refiner. Online refiners work by shipping a package to your home. You fill the package with your scrap gold and silver, and then mail it off to them.

Within days you should receive a check for your bounty. If you are not satisfied with the check, send it back and they will send you back your package of gold and silver. You can get a rough estimate of what online refiners are willing to pay by using this calculator.

What is Cash4Gold.com? Cash4Gold allows consumers to turn their unwanted, broken and outdated precious metals into immediate cash without the involvement of a middleman. Cash 4 Gold is discreet, quick and provides consumers the highest payout available. Cash4Gold is actually a refiner. You request a Free “PAK” to be sent to your home. You put all of your old gold and unwanted jewelry in the PAK and send it off. They will weight the materials and send you a check based on market prices. The price they pay for gold is updated almost daily, so you will always get fair payment for your gold. You can track your PAK through their website, so you will know where your order stands at all times.

Cash4Gold.com guarantees no fees, and no hidden costs. They also claim that you will get 5% more cash than their largest competitor. Cash4Gold.com is listed as #129 on Inc 500 fastest growing companies in America, as well as Entrepreneur Magazine’s Hot 500.
Cash4Gold.com’s website states it will accept the following things: Chains, Jewelry, Class Rings, Earrings, Dental Gold, Old Rings, Gold Watches, Charms, Wire
Bracelets, Necklaces, Loose Stones, Gold Partials, Mountings, Tangled Gold Chains, Bent or Broken Jewelry, Jewelry with Removed Stones, Unmatched Gold Earrings – Gold Pins/Brooches, 10k, 14k, 16k, 18k, 22k, 24k Scrap Gold and More.

Overall, Cash4Gold is a great company for selling your old gold and jewelry. Their refiner’s Pak is free, so it’s no loss to you to request one.

The purity of gold is measured using the karat system of measurement. Gold is usually mixed, or alloyed, with other metals, such as copper or nickel. This makes the gold more durable for jewelry use by hardening the gold. Gold in its purest form is 24 Karats, which is the highest purity measurement for gold. Most of the jewelry in the United States is sold in either 18KT, 14KT or 10KT purity. Gold sold in lower Karats means that the gold has been mixed with other metals, such as copper or nickel.
For example, 18KT gold jewelry is about 75% pure, meaning 75% of the piece is pure gold, and the rest is another metal allow. All companies pay based on the karat purity weight of the gold.

What is the difference between sterling silver and pure silver?

Sterling is usually alloyed (mixed) with another metal, such as nickel or zinc to harden the silver, and is typical for everyday use, such as jewelry or flatware. Most sterling silver is 92.5% pure silver, while pure silver is anywhere from 99.5% or 99.9% pure. All companies pay based on the silver purity and weight of the silver item. Many pieces of sterling silver jewelry will contain a ‘925’ marking.

What are platinum and palladium?

Platinum is an extremely rare metal Retailers claim supply estimates of this fine metal, being 30 times rarer than gold, that if all the world’s platinum reservoirs were poured into one Olympic size swimming pool, it would be scarcely deep enough to cover your ankles; whereas gold would fill more than three such pools. Platinum and palladium are part of the platinum precious metals group. They are considered to be precious metals, based on their rarity. Both are considered hard precious metals, so they are usually only alloyed 5-10%. Both metals are also naturally white in appearance. Jewelry made in platinum will be hallmarked with ‘PLAT’ or ‘PLT’ or ‘950′. Palladium jewelry is usually hallmarked ‘PLD’ or ‘PALL’.