Turning old gold/silver jewelry into coin
We have a fair amount of old gold and silver jewelry, flatware etc. that we've been picking up for quite some time from yard sales, flea markets etc., and I'd like to get this turned into coins of high purity.
Doing google searches for information hasn't gotten me very far since it seems most of the hits I get are of the "turning your gold into cash" type which I am NOT interested in at this time - I want to keep my precious metals but get them turned into a purer, more convenient trading form. The only clues I've gotten are about refineries performing this service, but the ones I've stumbled across on the web seem to only handle super large amounts for industrial purposes.
Any suggestions from the experts on this forum? I live in central PA, so I'd like to only deal with businesses that are fairly local; say Philly to NYC to Pittsburgh to Baltimore/DC/Northern VA.
I cant imagine a gold coin
I cant imagine a gold coin ever being worth more than gold jewelry, unless it REALLY REALLY ugly to the point that it is worth less than the actual gold content.
Ventura 2012
Refineries
There are plenty of small refineries that I have used. Most are known in the industry and also require you to be part of the jewelry industry. but that's not hard. Go get an EIN and a bank account, and you're ready to go.
What is an "EIN"
and how do I get one?
if you don't want a ssn your definately don't want a ein
it is a tax id number for a business
"What was taken from the boomers, it ain't there, what was taken from the X'ers it ain't there, what is being taken from their great, great, great squared grandchildren it ain't there. Some generation just has to have the guts to quit passing it on." Me
*May the only ones to touch your junk, be the ones you want to touch your junk.*
Midwest Refineries
This place will buy gold and silver jewelry and pay in Gold, silver and platinum bars, coins and rounds.
http://www.midwestrefineries.com/gold.htm
I have never personally used them but I have heard good things about them.
I wouldn't feel comfortable
Sending all this stuff in the mail.
Then I would suggest doing a search
on the internet for a refinery that is within driving distance.
Appraisals are the way to go
Just get some certificates of appraisal for each peice of Jewlery from a reputalbe source and store 'em or trade 'em for coins.
“I’m fully diversified. I’ve got some under the mattress, some under the floor boards, some in the backyard.”
“I’m fully diversified. I’ve got some under the mattress, some under the floor boards, some in the backyard.”
Jewelry
There was a post a while back about the collapse in (I think it was?) Argentina. The guy suggested to stock up on common jewelry for use as money, instead of more pure coins/bars and such.
Think the reasons were, more people would take the jewelry for supplies, and something about not getting full value for your coins/bars in a trade.
Yeah
he said gold rings were as valuable as coins in Argentina, so I was planning on keeping the rings.
Jewelry has higher value
I would be very careful not to reduce the value of your investment. The things you've been picking up may have higher value unchanged. Trade them for bullion if you want.
IMissLiberty
IMissLiberty
777
what you might try is to take it to a jeweler who deals in estate jewelry.
some of them also buy and sell coins. if there is one in your neck of the woods
you could have him appraise the jewelry and then trade for coins of equal value. bullion - gold or silver - would give you the most bang for your buck.
Ron Paul is my President
Ron Paul is My President
I (unsuccessfully) gold pan
I (unsuccessfully) gold pan during the summer months and have also been curious about this for when I do find some gold.
There are some video's of people doing this on youtube. Look for "how to melt gold" or "melting coins". You would need an air-gas torch at the least that can heat to about 1700 degrees. You would also need ceramic crucibles which can be picked up pretty cheap on ebay. And then you would need a mold that you could pour the liquid gold/silver into. Forget rounds. Think 'loaf bars'.
There are some pretty nifty crucible heater devices that you place the crucible into and then is heated up to the proper temperature. I'm not sure what those devices are called.
It's a lot of hassle.
For a few grams up to a pound or so, you need to melt down the metal and perform what is called cupellation, or a fire-assaying process. This requires adding lead and heating of the metal to about 2000 degrees with either a crucible and blow torch, or a blast furnace until the metal oxidizes and slags up. the PM will remain. BTW, unless you know what the hell you're doing here, you can poison yourself.
If you want pure gold, you'll need nitric and hydrochloric acid mixture of 1:3, called Aqua Regia. This will dissolve the gold you just assayed completely. Next you use an electrolytic process and collect the pure refined gold (you need a cathode of pure 24k gold leaf for the reaction). Voila.
Needless to say, maximum corrosion precautions apply. A.R. is a very potent acid.
It's a major pain in the ass to do, but if you're really that motivated, it can be done in-house with the right materials. Most junk jewelry is 14-18k gold, so your salvage will likely be minimal anyway. Before you get too crazy, I'd decide if it's really worth it.
So if
I have, say a pound or so, it might be worth the hassle?
Depends.
Lot of factors involved (type of jewelry, quality, composition, plated vs. alloy, etc.)
If the majority of the jewelry is 14-18k plated, you won't get much of anything. It's more or less gold anodized. Once the construction metals burn off and the refining process is complete, your pound will probably yield a gram or two.
If it is all quality 18k, maybe worth the trouble, but you still won't get a lot from it. The alloys will burn off and you still only end up with a small amount of gold for refining. The only way to really go with salvaging precious metal for yield is to do it in mass quantity, and it's an arduous process.
The equipment and acids are easy enough to come by (I use them for parkerizing, electroplating and sometimes acid engraving on firearm parts), but the precautionary equipment and processing time also need to be considered.
A gram???
A GRAM from a pound of assorted 10-24 k jewelry?, even if most of it is in the 14-18 range? That's hard to believe. Now I also have sterling sliver..would that be easier to get 'yield"?
precious metal recovery
I looked into this and have a vid of how its done. ishore.com can help. However it is a difficult task. there are some utubes on it. I got the video off of ebay. Search scrap gold refining or ishor or aqua regia. Good luck.
ok
thanks
How gold is recycled
This should get your juices flowing. How about a DP recycling network. See here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdu5yS5q2so
I don't have an answer, but I'll bump
I also live in central Pa. The mountains of Weikert, West end of Union County.
probably much more expensive
probably much more expensive than it's worth, unless you have VERY large amounts.
Maybe a community college metalsmith or jewelry class could help you out? I took a community college metalsmithing/jewlery class and we had all of the tools required to do this, aside from refining to a purer form of metal though. And it was fun as #e!! too.
I guess
several oz. yield cannot be considered "very large amounts".
bump
because it was caught in the spam filter so no one saw it.