Plain English

Gold and silver glossary

The words on hallmarks, price boards and offers, defined so a quote can be read line by line. Written by the people who test and buy the metal at Liffey Metals in Dublin; where a term needs more than a definition, the link goes to the page that explains it.

Purity and marks

Carat (ct): The purity of gold in twenty-fourths. 24ct is pure gold; 18ct is 18 parts gold in 24, or 75 percent; 9ct is 37.5 percent. Spelled karat (k) in the United States. Not the carat used for gemstone weight, which is 0.2 grams. Gold carats and fineness.
Fineness: Purity expressed in parts per thousand: 375 for 9ct, 585 for 14ct, 750 for 18ct, 916 for 22ct, 999 for 24ct; 925 for sterling silver, 950 for most platinum. The number stamped in a modern hallmark.
Hallmark: A set of marks struck by an assay office guaranteeing the fineness of a piece: the maker's mark, the fineness number, the office mark (a harp for Dublin) and usually a date letter. Irish law requires most precious-metal articles sold in Ireland to carry one. How to read Irish and UK hallmarks.
Dublin Assay Office: The body at Dublin Castle, established in 1637, that tests and hallmarks precious metals in Ireland. Its mark is a crowned harp. It is independent of dealers, including us.
Date letter: The letter in a hallmark that records the year a piece was assayed, in a cycle of alphabets with changing letter styles. Useful for dating; it does not affect scrap value.
Maker's mark (sponsor's mark): The registered initials of the maker or the firm that submitted the piece for hallmarking. It identifies who made or imported the item, not what it is worth as metal.
Gold-plated: A base metal with a very thin layer of gold on the surface, usually marked GP, GEP or HGE. The gold content is too small to recover; plated items have no scrap value. An XRF test and a magnet tell plated from solid in seconds.
Gold-filled and rolled gold: A thicker layer of gold bonded to base metal, marked GF, 1/20 12K GF or RG. More gold than plating, but still a sheet over brass; it is priced, when at all, well below solid gold and only in quantity.
Vermeil: Sterling silver with a layer of gold over it. Priced as silver; the gold layer is too thin to count.

Prices and money

Spot price: The live market price of one troy ounce of pure gold, silver or platinum for immediate delivery, quoted in US dollars and set by trading in London and New York. Every buyer's price starts here, converted to euro per gram. Gold price per gram in Ireland today.
Troy ounce: The unit precious metals trade in: 31.1035 grams, heavier than the 28.35 gram ounce used for food. Divide a spot price by 31.1035 to get the price per gram.
Melt value (intrinsic value): What the metal in a piece is worth at spot: spot price per gram multiplied by fineness multiplied by the weight of metal. The ceiling any scrap buyer can pay; the difference between melt value and the offer is the buyer's margin. What is scrap gold worth?.
Spread (margin): The gap between melt value and the price a buyer pays, covering refining, testing, insurance and profit. It is the only number that differs between buyers and the one most of them will not state. We publish ours as a net price per gram for each grade. How gold buyers price jewellery.
Price per gram: The net figure a buyer pays for one gram of a given carat after every deduction. The only number that makes two offers comparable; ask every buyer for it and for the exact weight they used. Our published prices.
Pennyweight (dwt): An old unit of 1.555 grams still used by some buyers. A per-pennyweight rate looks larger than the same price per gram; divide by 1.555 to compare.
Premium: The amount above spot that bullion coins and bars sell for, or that a buyer pays above melt for a coin collectors want. Sovereigns and Krugerrands carry a small premium when sold; common scrap carries none. Selling gold coins in Ireland.
Capital gains tax on gold: In Ireland a gain on selling gold may be chargeable to CGT at 33 percent above the annual exemption of 1,270 euro, with inherited items valued at the date of death. Most household jewellery sales fall under the exemption; the page below sets out the rules and when to speak to Revenue or an accountant. Is selling gold taxable in Ireland?.

Testing and refining

XRF (X-ray fluorescence): A non-destructive test that reads the elemental make-up of the surface of a piece in seconds, giving gold, silver, copper and other percentages. The method assay offices and refiners use. We test every item by XRF on camera and show the reading. XRF testing explained.
Acid test: Rubbing a piece on a touchstone and applying nitric acid solutions of known strength; the colour change indicates the carat. Quick and cheap but it marks the piece, reads only the surface and depends on the tester's eye. XRF has replaced it for anything that matters.
Assay: A formal test of the fineness of a metal. Assay offices do it by fire assay (cupellation) for hallmarking; dealers use XRF for a result that is close enough for pricing and does not damage the piece.
Refining: Separating the pure metal from the alloy and anything else in scrap, by melting and chemical or electrolytic processes, to produce fine gold or silver that can be sold back into the market. Refiners buy scrap because they do this themselves; everyone else sells on to one. Our refining service.
Melt and assay: A refining method for larger lots: the whole lot is melted into a bar, a sample is assayed, and payment is on the exact fine-metal content of the bar. Fairer than estimating piece by piece when there is enough metal to justify the melt.
LBMA: The London Bullion Market Association, which sets the Good Delivery standard for bars and whose price-setting process gives the daily gold and silver benchmarks. Refined metal is eventually sold to or through LBMA members.

Metals and items

Scrap gold: Any gold sold for its metal content rather than as a piece of jewellery: broken chains, single earrings, out-of-fashion rings, dental gold, bits of bullion. Condition and design do not matter; weight and carat do. Selling scrap gold.
Bullion: Gold or silver held for its metal value in a standard form: coins such as sovereigns, Britannias and Krugerrands, or bars with a refiner's stamp. Priced close to spot, sometimes with a premium for sought-after coins. Selling gold coins and bars.
Sovereign: A British gold coin of 7.98 grams at 22ct, containing 7.32 grams of pure gold. Common in Irish households; widely traded, so it carries a small premium over melt.
Sterling silver (925): An alloy of 92.5 percent silver and 7.5 percent other metal, usually copper, marked 925 or with a lion passant on older British pieces. The standard for cutlery, tableware and most silver jewellery. Selling silver.
Britannia silver (958): A higher-purity silver standard of 95.84 percent, marked 958 or with the figure of Britannia. Worth a little more per gram than sterling for its extra silver.
EPNS (silver plate): Electroplated nickel silver: a base-metal alloy with a thin silver coating, marked EPNS, EP or A1. Contains almost no silver and has no scrap value; most 'silver' cutlery sets are EPNS.
White gold: Gold alloyed with white metals such as palladium or nickel and usually plated with rhodium. The same carat rules apply: 18ct white gold is 75 percent gold and is priced the same per gram as yellow 18ct.
Platinum 950: The usual jewellery platinum: 95 percent platinum, marked 950 or Pt950. Heavier than gold, priced from the platinum spot price, and tested by XRF like everything else. Selling platinum.
Dental gold: Crowns, bridges and inlays made from gold alloys, typically between 10ct and 18ct equivalent with palladium and platinum. Priced on the XRF result; a crown with the tooth still attached is fine, we remove it. Selling broken and odd gold.

Selling in Ireland

Bosca Óir (the postal pack): Our free, prepaid, insured postal pack for sending gold and silver from anywhere in Ireland. Opened on camera, every piece tested, an itemised offer sent, and everything returned free if you decline. Sell by post.
Itemised offer: An offer that lists every piece with its weight, tested carat and price per gram, so the total can be checked line by line. The form any serious buyer's offer should take.
Insured post: Postal transit covered against loss or damage, with An Post's registered service or a dealer's own policy. Ask who carries the risk from the moment you hand the parcel over; with our pack, we do. How the insured pack works.
Valuation (probate and insurance): A written, itemised statement of value for a purpose: probate values at the date of death, insurance values at replacement cost. Different from a scrap offer and usually higher; a valuation is not an offer to buy. Valuations for probate and insurance.
Cash-for-gold: The retail counter and postal buyers that advertise fast cash for gold. Not a type of licence or standard; the term says nothing about the price, which in Ireland ranges widely. Judge any buyer by the net price per gram and the test method. How to compare gold buyers in Dublin.

Put the words to work

Request your free postal pack (Bosca Óir)

Weigh it, read the mark, check the price per gram, then let us test it on camera. Free insured pack to any county, or meet us in Dublin.