“I have a collection of jewelry that belonged to my grandmother,” a precious metal investor wrote us recently. “It is a mix of costume jewelry and nicer items that are made of gold and silver. I suspect that the value of the collection exceeds the dollar value of the precious metals it contains, because many of the items are interesting historical pieces.”

Did you know that Queen Victoria, who ruled Great Britain from 1837 until her death in 1901, was buried with a lot of her favorite pieces of jewelry?

She personally selected the items of jewelry that she wanted to be buried with her. They included pieces of jewelry that had been given to her by her late husband Prince Albert, as well as a number of bracelets and other items that held personal value for her.

How much were these items worth? We don’t know. But we do know one thing about them . . .

Holiday gift-giving season has started. You could give the people on your list all kinds of great presents – kitchen appliances, car accessories, actually anything you think they would like.

But if you are in a generous mood, we have a suggestion for you . . .

There are many ways to enjoy financial advantages from the precious metals you own. You can have Specialty Metals Smelters and Refiners process your gold scrap, silver scrap and platinum scrap, and have us send you a check for the value of the metal they contain. But there are other ways. You can fund your IRA or other investment accounts with precious metals, donate them to your preferred charity – and the list goes on and on.

We all just got a three-month extension for filing our Federal taxes. That’s right, instead of filing on April 15th, we now have until July 15th.

Now, you might say, “What’s the difference, I’m going to have to file and/or pay my taxes anyway, right?” But you have another option. You can take the extra time you’ve been given to take a deep breath and consider some ways to get more value and income from the precious metals and precious metal scrap you own. Whether you center your holdings in platinum scrap, gold scrap, or silver scrap, here are some issues worth considering now.

If you have ever donated a car to a charity, you know the routine. You call to schedule a time when your car will be picked up. A flatbed truck arrives, the driver writes out a receipt, and your old car gets hauled away. A little while later, you get a receipt from the charity that took your car. That receipt should provide a value for the car you donated, which should be what the charity sold the car for.

What effect will the new tax law have on the value of your precious metals?

The answer is that nobody knows the answer to that question, even though plenty of people are writing their opinions on the topic.

Yes, the deadline for filing your 2015 tax return has come and gone. But before you take a deep breath and move on, why not take stock of tax lessons you learned last month, talk about them with your tax preparer or attorney, and make some decisions right now about how you are going to deal with your precious metals holdings when next April rolls around?