Recycling Gold Filled Scrap - Big Dollars Could Be Hiding in Small Items
Jewelry manufacturers have recently gotten very good at depositing extremely thin layers of gold onto other metals. The result? Most of the gold-plated pieces of jewelry that have been manufactured in the last few years are not worth recycling at all. The cost of refining the gold they contain is higher than the value of the gold itself.
But if you have large quantities of older gold-filled items, that is another story. As recently as 20 years ago, manufacturers of the following items were applying far thicker platings of gold than are common today . . .
- Gold-filled Jewelry – Even small pins, bracelets, and chains can contain quantities of gold that are worth recycling. It is also worth remembering that as recently as only a few decades ago, relatively inexpensive watches often had gold-filled cases that contained quantities of gold that can be quite valuable today.
- Trophies, plaques, and commemorative items – Today, they contain very little gold. But in years past, that was not the case. If you have a quantity of them, they can be well worth recycling.
- Gold-filled Eyeglass frames – It is easy to overlook the value that resides in them, because they are small and lightweight. But to restate the point, older gold-filled eyeglass frames – those made 20 or more years ago – contain much more gold than frames that are manufactured today.
- Gold-filled plates, dishes, cutlery, candlesticks and other items – If you’re lucky enough to own quantities of older items, you could be sitting on quite a valuable quantity of gold.
Stampings to Look for on Gold-Filled Items
Look over the gold-filled items that you have. Not all gold-filled scrap items will be stamped with numbers that indicate how much gold they contain. But if you do notice numbers like these stamped onto items, here is that they mean:
- “1/10 10K” means that 1/10 of the weight of your item is 10K (10 karat) gold.
- “1/10 12K” means that 1/10 the weight of your frame is 12K gold. And so on.
If you have large quantities of gold-plated and gold-filled scrap, call us at 800-426-2344 to learn more.
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