Jewellery that arrives through an estate tends to arrive all at once: a box of mixed pieces, some precious, some costume, some with stories attached and some nobody can place. Whether to keep any of it, divide it, or sell it is a personal decision, and this site will not make it for you. What it can do is lay out what can be measured, what the different numbers you will hear actually mean, and the order in which it helps to find things out.
First, there is usually no deadline
Gold, silver and platinum do not deteriorate in a drawer, and very little about an inherited collection changes over a few weeks or months. The metal price moves, in both directions, but nobody can tell you in which direction next. The pressure people feel to decide quickly usually comes from circumstances — clearing a house, settling an estate — rather than from the jewellery. Where there is a legal process under way, the executor or administrator of the estate is the person with authority over the items until they are formally passed on, and their timetable is the one that matters.
Sort before anything else
Most of the useful work can be done at a kitchen table with a magnifier and a kitchen scale.
- Separate by stamp. Look inside ring shanks, on clasps and on the backs of brooches. Karat marks (9K, 14K, 18K), millesimal marks (375, 585, 750, 925) and full hallmarks mean something specific; “GF”, “RGP” or “EP” mean the gold is a surface layer. The purity converter translates every common stamp, and gold filled vs gold plated explains the layered ones.
- Set aside unmarked pieces. No stamp does not mean no gold — older and hand-made pieces are often unmarked — but it does mean the purity is unknown until tested. Is it real gold? covers the checks that do not damage anything.
- Weigh each group. Weight in grams, by purity, is the single most useful set of numbers you can have, and the most commonly overlooked.
- Note names and boxes. A maker’s mark, a signed clasp, original boxes or receipts can matter a great deal for the resale value of a finished piece, and not at all for its melt value. Keep them with the item.
The three values, and why they differ
Melt value
The value of the precious metal alone: weight × purity × spot price. It is objective and calculable to the gram, and it is what the scrap gold calculator and silver value calculator show. It ignores stones, design, maker and age entirely. It is also not a price anyone will pay you; scrap buyers pay a percentage of it.
Resale value as a piece
What a finished piece might fetch as jewellery, from someone who wants to wear it. For ordinary modern pieces this can be close to, or even below, melt. For signed pieces, period jewellery, or good stones, it can be far above. It is a market judgement about a specific item, not a calculation, which is why this site does not attempt it. Why the two are kept apart is the subject of melt value is not what your jewellery is worth.
The value an estate or insurer uses
Formal valuations are written for a purpose, and the purpose sets the definition. An insurance valuation estimates what it would cost to replace the item new, which is usually well above what it could be sold for. A valuation for an estate uses a market-value definition instead. In the US, the federal estate tax regulations define fair market value as the price at which property would change hands between a willing buyer and a willing seller, neither being under any compulsion to buy or sell and both having reasonable knowledge of the relevant facts (Treas. Reg. § 20.2031-1(b)). These are different questions with different answers, and confusing an insurance figure with a sale price is one of the most common sources of disappointment with inherited jewellery.
This site does not appraise. A formal valuation for an estate or insurer has to come from a qualified appraiser who examines the pieces in person.
Tax: the outline, not advice
Tax rules depend on where you live and the details of the estate, and a professional is the right source for a specific case. Two US federal rules are worth knowing exist, because they surprise people:
- Basis is reset at death. Under Internal Revenue Code § 1014, the basis of inherited property is generally its fair market value at the date of the previous owner’s death — not what they originally paid. Any taxable gain on a later sale is measured from that figure, which is one reason a date-of-death valuation can matter.
- Jewellery is a collectible. Gems, jewellery, coins and bullion fall under the collectibles rules in IRC § 1(h)(4), where the maximum federal long-term capital gains rate is 28%, rather than the lower maximum that applies to shares.
Other countries handle inherited personal possessions differently, sometimes with specific exemptions for items below a set value. Check the rules where you are rather than assuming they match these.
What to have before any conversation about value
If you do eventually talk to anyone about these pieces — a family member, an appraiser, a jeweller or a buyer — the conversation goes better with your own numbers in hand: a list of items, their stamps, their weights, and the melt value of each group at today’s spot price. Those numbers will not tell you what to do. They do mean that any figure you are offered can be compared with something real, rather than accepted or refused on feel alone.