Category: Precious Metals

In the realm of jewellery, beauty and craftsmanship are highly valued. However, beneath the surface of some pieces lies a hidden danger that often goes unnoticed by unsuspecting sellers of scrap gold – cadmium. This toxic heavy metal has been found in scrap gold jewellery, posing potential risks to both wearers and the environment. In this blog post, we will delve into the significance of cadmium in scrap gold jewellery, explore its health hazards, discuss regulatory measures and provide essential tips for consumer awareness and protection.

Understanding Cadmium and its Relevance in Jewellery

Cadmium, a naturally occurring heavy metal, is an element commonly found in the Earth’s crust. Its unique properties make it an attractive choice for jewellery, as it can create vibrant and captivating colours. However, it is important to be aware of the risks associated with cadmium, as its toxicity can be harmful to both human health and the environment.

Cadmium in Jewellery

Cadmium finds its way into jewellery through various manufacturing processes and improper recycling techniques. It is commonly present in low-cost jewellery pieces, including those made from scrap gold. Sellers of scrap gold need to be cautious about the potential presence of cadmium in their items.

Health Hazards Associated with Cadmium

Exposure to cadmium in jewellery poses significant health risks, particularly when it comes to pieces worn on a daily basis. Understanding these risks is crucial for both consumers and industry professionals.

Respiratory Problems:

Inhalation of cadmium fumes or dust particles can lead to lung irritation, chronic bronchitis, and even lung cancer. Jewellers and manufacturers must take necessary precautions to prevent the release of cadmium during production processes.

Kidney Damage:

Prolonged exposure to cadmium can impair kidney function and increase the risk of kidney disease. Individuals wearing cadmium-containing jewellery are susceptible to cadmium absorption through the skin, further emphasising the importance of avoiding prolonged contact.

Carcinogenic Effects:

Cadmium is classified as a human carcinogen, with potential links to various types of cancer, including lung, prostate, and kidney cancer. Minimising cadmium exposure is crucial to reduce the risk of developing cancer.

Regulatory Measures and Industry Initiatives in the UK

To protect consumers and promote responsible practices, the UK has implemented regulations and standards that restrict the use of cadmium in jewellery. Additionally, industry stakeholders have taken initiatives to address this issue and ensure compliance with the regulations.

Current Regulations

The UK follows stringent regulations and standards to safeguard consumers from the potential harm caused by cadmium exposure. These regulations set legal limits and restrictions on the use of cadmium in jewellery, promoting a safer market. From 2011 the regulation restricts cadmium content in new jewellery to 0.01 per cent (100 mg/kg) by weight of metal.

REACH Regulation

Under the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulations, certain hazardous substances, including cadmium, are restricted in various consumer products, including jewellery. These regulations establish concentration limits of cadmium in jewellery items to protect human health and the environment.

Nickel Directive

The UK follows the European Union’s Nickel Directive (2004/96/EC), which regulates the release of nickel and other allergenic substances from jewellery. This directive includes specific restrictions on the use of cadmium in jewellery, especially in items that come into direct and prolonged contact with the skin.

British Hallmarking Council

The British Hallmarking Council oversees the hallmarking system in the UK, ensuring that precious metal items, including jewellery, meet legal standards. By adhering to specific regulations, the council helps prevent the use of cadmium beyond safe limits in jewellery pieces.

British Standard BS EN 1811

The British Standard BS EN 1811 specifies requirements and test methods for jewellery that comes into direct and prolonged contact with the skin. It includes limits on the release of certain substances, including cadmium, in order to minimise the risk of sensitisation and allergic reactions among wearers.

Environmental-Friendly Recycling

Proper recycling of scrap gold jewellery is essential to prevent the contamination of the environment with cadmium and other toxic substances. Industry initiatives promote environmentally friendly recycling practices that aim to minimise the release of cadmium during the recycling process. Consumers are encouraged to utilise designated disposal channels and recycle their unwanted or damaged jewellery through responsible recycling methods.

Cash For Your Gold’s Commitment

At Cash For Your Gold, we prioritise your safety and the safety of staff at our processing partners by restricting cadmium levels in scrap that we purchase to 1%. We do not purchase scrap precious metals that have in excess of 1% cadmium for two primary reasons:

1.Health Protection: We understand the potential risks associated with cadmium exposure and strive to ensure the well-being of our customers. By not accepting scrap precious metal with cadmium, we contribute to minimising the risks of health issues that cadmium can pose.

2. Compliance with Regulations: As responsible buyers, we strictly follow the regulations and standards set by the UK government. By refraining from purchasing scrap precious metal containing higher levels of cadmium, we uphold these regulations and contribute to a safer and more transparent marketplace.

In conclusion, being aware of the presence of cadmium in scrap gold jewellery is crucial for sellers in the UK. Understanding the health hazards, regulatory measures, and industry initiatives surrounding cadmium empowers sellers to make informed decisions, ensuring their well-being and the protection of the environment.

• Key Takeaways: 
  
  • Dividing jewellery can be a contentious process, especially if the items are precious heirlooms or are worth a lot of money.
  
  • Generally, gifts are kept by the person who received them, but there are exceptions.
  
  • Options for dividing jewellery include selling it, letting each party keep their own items, or donating it.
  
  • Emotional considerations should be made to avoid power struggles and arguments.

Most couples assume they must divide assets 50-50 during a divorce. However, that’s not always the case with jewellery. 

The splitting of jewellery can be a contentious process, especially if items given to the husband or wife are precious heirlooms or are worth a lot of money. 

We’ll look at what happens to jewellery during a divorce and the financial and emotional consequences. You’ll learn more about the process and how to manage it. 

How Does The Legal Process Of Dividing Assets, Including Jewellery, Work In A Divorce?

Generally, the husband or wife can keep gold rings and other jewellery gifted to them by their spouse. However, there is an exception. If you can prove that you gave jewellery with the express intention that your spouse returned it upon the marriage breaking down, you could get it back. 

This rule comes from the Married Women’s Property Act of 1882. The legislation denied husbands the right to get their divorced wife rings back automatically. Previous legislation saw wedding rings as “decorations” of wives, permitting the husband to take them back if the marriage failed. 

How To Resolve Disputes Over Jewellery During A Divorce 

The best way to resolve disputes over jewellery is to sign a pre-nuptial or pre-civil partnership agreement stating what will happen to the rings during a divorce. Most couples will agree to return the jewellery to their separated partner, particularly if they are valuable family heirlooms. 

Options For Dividing Jewellery In A Divorce

Dividing a physical piece of jewellery between two people 50-50 is usually impossible. Therefore, couples must find other strategies to split their assets. 

One option is to sell the jewellery. Couples can then split the money between them. 

Another option is to let each party keep their respective rings and jewellery. Usually, this approach works if the value of your jewellery is similar. 

Some couples also consider donating their jewellery to a good cause. They might adopt this approach if they have healthy finances or both believe in supporting a worthy cause. 

What Emotional Considerations Should You Make When Dividing Jewellery?

The emotional implications of dividing assets can be extreme, leading to disputes. Therefore, you need to be careful whenever you broach this subject. 

Always consider the sentimental value and attachment you and your spouse have towards various items. For instance, you might value an ancient family heirloom more than they do, even though you gifted it to them. Likewise, they might have a stronger attachment to some items compared to you. 

How To Manage Emotions And Make Rational Decisions During The Divorce Process

Lastly, you’ll want to avoid power struggles and arguments with your former spouse over jewellery. Think carefully about who should keep each item and try to negotiate. 

You’ll also want to make sure you understand that it’s okay for each party to have different feelings. Giving yourself a break is perfectly fine. Taking time away from the issue can often provide some much-needed clarity on what you should do next. 

To the untrained eye, white gold and silver look and feel the same. However, they are two completely different substances. 

This post explains the difference between white gold and silver and then discusses the pros and cons of each.

Difference Between White Gold And Silver

White gold is a gold alloy containing palladium, nickel, zinc, rhodium and silver. The exact ratios of these metals vary according to the manufacturer, but gold typically comprises 37.5 per cent of the alloy. (By contrast, most gold bars are 99.99 per cent gold). 

By contrast, silver products are almost entirely silver. 925 Sterling silver is 92.5 per cent silver and 7.5 per cent other metals, usually copper. Fine silver (like fine gold) is more than 99 per cent silver.

Both white gold and sterling silver are hardier than pure gold and silver. Alloying improves their strength and durability characteristics. Pure gold or silver jewellery can break easily because these metals are soft in their natural state.

Appearance

White gold is shiny, similar to platinum. However, the shininess comes from the rhodium plating, not the white gold itself (the underlying metal is slightly yellow). 

Silver is shiny and lustrous, like white gold, but has a slight hint of grey. It’s not quite as bright as rhodium but easy to texture and style. 

Price

White gold is more expensive than silver because it contains rare metals, such as gold and palladium. Interestingly, jewellers may charge more for white gold than regular yellow gold because some of the metals in it cost more per ounce than pure gold. 

Silver is a more abundant and cheaper metal than either gold or palladium. Gold is £47.50 per gram, and palladium is £47.10 per gram. On the other hand, silver is just £0.62 per gram. 

Maintenance

Rhodium protects white gold. However, it doesn’t last forever. You know it’s time to replace the plating when a gold colour starts showing through.

By contrast, marks on silver can appear more easily. Owners must clean and polish it regularly to keep it in good condition. 

For example, Sterling silver with a high copper content can form an oxidative layer on the surface, making it appear greyer than fine silver. This tarnishing doesn’t damage the silver, you can recover the metal later if needed, but it does affect the appearance. 

Pros And Cons Of White Gold

Pros:

• Shiny and lustrous
• Usually less expensive than pure platinum
• A popular choice for wedding bands

Cons:

• Rhodium plating may require replacement
• It may turn yellow over time as the rhodium plating wears off
• It is not hypoallergenic because it may contain nickel

Pros And Cons Of Silver

Pros:

• Inexpensive and beautiful
• Looks great when new
• Widely available and mimic the appearance and characteristics of more valuable metals

Cons:

• Tarnishes easily due to the copper content
• Softer than white gold, increasing the risk of silver marking
• Requires regular cleaning and polishing to look its best

Both white gold and silver are valuable metals, so if you own them, you should get them valued.

Among many British Asian families, gold is often bought or passed down from older family members to the younger generation as a wedding gift, signifying good fortune in the years to come. Sadly, possessing such ornate jewellery makes families the targets of theft by organised crime groups. 

Golden roots 

Gold prices are elevated in early 2022, meaning any gold in your possession is worth considerably more than it was for most of human history. However, with high prices comes greater risk of theft, as organised crime groups have been targeting communities with a particularly large amount of gold in their households. British Asian families are on the receiving end of many such burglaries and robberies, and it was estimated that Asian gold thefts had cost more than £140 million between 2013-19. 

Such losses are upsetting not just in terms of the monetary value lost but the irreplaceable sentimental value families place in golden heirlooms. One issue that comes with holding such items is that they are often produced by artisans on the Indian subcontinent with no forms of hallmarks, making it hard to trace the point of origin. Not only that, but it can be tricky to work out its purity with the naked eye. Fortunately, here at Cash for Your Gold, we use a process called gold assaying to determine purity using the latest in X-ray technology. 

Devices called X-RF machines can produce X-rays which when used on gold items produce forms of light corresponding to the molecular make-up of the item itself. As a result, we have the means to accurately tell you how pure your gold truly is. For example, we may find your item is closer to 21 carat, while items sourced from East Asia could be of higher purity, depending on the sources. With this process complete, we can give you an offer, allowing you to make the most of the high gold prices at present. 

Keeping gold in the family 

While selling the family gold could be easy for some, others might find it impossible to part with tradition. With this in mind, it might still be possible to sell your family gold and simply swap it in favour of modern bullion bars. This comes with a range of benefits: bullion bars are of a high purity, with clear serial numbers and purity markings. Not only that, but they come in a wide range of shapes and sizes, and can be stored in a secure way, allowing you to minimize the risk of theft in the future, while keeping gold in the family. 

Such items have tremendous value in sentimental terms, as gold is viewed as an auspicious metal in many cultures. By swapping old jewellery for bullion bars, traditions can be maintained, but with a purer gold item that can be kept safely and passed down for many more years to come. 

If you wish to learn more about selling scrap gold or selling and swapping old gold heirlooms for bullion, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Cash for Your Gold today. 

With prices in the shops remaining higher than last year, and now the emergence of the Omicron COVID variant, you might be looking for reasons to be cheerful this Christmas. High gold prices could be the silver (or gold) lining in this situation, making the festive season an ideal time to sell gold. 

Reasons for cheer 

After months of social distancing, mask-wearing and seeing inflation eat into incomes, it’s easy to think Christmas 2021 will have few reasons for us to be cheerful. However, if you happen to have a bit of gold tucked away, it could be a truly golden opportunity, especially if you’re thinking of selling it today. That’s because gold prices are close to all-time highs set in the summer of 2020. Since the first news about COVID-19 broke in late 2019, gold has gained 20 per cent in value. 

Since 2015, prices have doubled, meaning any gold you may possess will have been revalued to the upside in a dramatic fashion. After a rough few years owing to the pandemic, you might find it tricky to find anything that will have gained as much value over these years which compares to gold’s performance. Prices are attractive for selling opportunities, as a troy ounce can offer a price of almost £1,350 as of December 2021. 

Cash for Your Gold has a gold scrap calculator, allowing for near-instant valuations of gold items. All you need to know is the weight and purity, and then you can feed it into the calculator. As of December 2021, just one gram of 9-carat gold could sell for £15.52, so all you have to do is imagine what a heavier item with a greater purity could be worth. 

Selling at Christmas 

By selling with Cash for Your Gold, you’ll be choosing a buyer which has been operating in the gold markets for many years, with plenty of experience to help you with your enquiry. If you wish to ensure a swift sale of scrap gold by year’s end, do make sure to get in touch with us, as our offices will be closed for the Christmas and New Year’s holiday. Please remember to fill our Seller’s Form, when you are ready to make a sale. 

Gold comes in all shapes and sizes, but also in terms of purity. For example, we happily accept white and rose gold, both gold alloys, which still hold high value when it becomes time to sell. If you wish to avoid the long queues in the Post Office when dispatching your item, we suggest taking advantage of the Royal Mail’s collection service when mailing your item to Cash for Your Gold. 

As COVID-19 cases remain high, mailing your item from the safety of your home minimises the risk of infection and offers a more convenient way to sell to us ahead of the festive holidays. For more information about selling with us, don’t hesitate to contact us today. 

Nothing can quite beat the shine of gold or silver for understandable reasons, but with only so much of both metals to go around, it’s easy to see why it’s worth looking into the other precious metals. Platinum and palladium have shown increased interest from both buyers and sellers, so it pays to see what you might have in this regard, and see what items might be worth. 

Alternatives to gold and silver 

Platinum and palladium might not be so familiar to most, but they are still highly regarded precious metals, certainly on the precious metals market. Both metals have their uses in technology, as part of catalytic converters, electrode components as well as forms of jewellery. 

Wedding bands are some of the most popular uses for palladium and platinum when used for jewellery. Otherwise, their use in catalytic converters uses up much of the world’s supplies, and this industrial usage goes some of the way towards explaining how the prices for these respective metals are impressively high. At Cash for Your Gold, we can offer up free, almost-instant valuations. 

Using our platinum and palladium scrap calculators, you can get an estimate for the price you could get for a respective item. For example, one gram of 950-carat platinum could yield a value of £17.71, while palladium items weighing a single gram with a purity of .999 could garner a price of £45.42 at current rates. 

Devil in the detail 

To the naked eye, platinum and palladium scrap items might look identical, but we know better. For example, palladium wedding bands exude a silver-white shine but are actually subtly darker than platinum ones, and slightly more durable as well. Believe it or not, but while gold is rare in itself, palladium is even rarer, by 30 times. 

Platinum is 15 times rarer than gold by comparison, suggesting that both these metals can be useful alternatives for scrapping if you’re looking for ways to sell jewellery for the right price. It might be easy to find an old ring and assume it’s white gold, but it could actually be either palladium or platinum, meaning it could be worth a whole lot more if you sell to Cash for Your Gold today. 

We’re experts in facilitating sales of such precious metals, as it’s something we’ve been helping with for years. If you wish to make a sale today, make sure to fill in this easy-to-use Seller’s Form. Prices for palladium are especially attractive for selling in the current climate, as they remain twice as high as they were as recently as 2018. 

If you are keen to make a sale at some future point, but need some more information about selling platinum or palladium, get in touch with Cash for Your Gold by calling 01902 623 253 today. 

Much has been said in recent months about the profitably of selling scrap gold, and it’s no surprise – gold scrap prices are hitting almost unprecedented levels, and anyone with a bit of scrap gold lying around has been cashing in.

But have you considered what a golden – or should we say silver – opportunity it would be if you happened to find some scrap silver lying around, too? 

Scrap silver is poised for a rally 

The prices of gold and silver historically rise in tandem, but the price of silver has been unusually disconnected from gold since 2011. Prices for scrap gold have been generally stable over the last eight years, but silver prices have more than halved since peaking in April 2011. 

This trend has persisted over time, meaning silver is significantly undervalued relative to gold. It’s very unusual to see scrap silver looking so inexpensive relative to its yellow cousin. If some estimates are correct, the ratio will eventually return to its long-run average, if some estimates are correct. This could make scrap silver jewellery and other items such as cutlery or ornaments much more valuable.

Sell scrap silver today 

At present, scrap silver items weighing 100 grams with 999.0 purity could earn you as much as £35.64 each. If prices are bottoming out, with the prospect of a great silver bull market in the coming years, you could expect to make even more when you sell. 

Cash for Your Gold accepts not just gold but silver scrap items of all shapes and sizes, too. We accept silver jewellery, coins, cutlery, even photo frames, candlesticks and, of course, bullion. 

Silver is often viewed as cheaper and generally less profitable to sell than gold, but in the past, it has shown far greater price volatility. This means every upswing in value can yield significantly greater gains when you sell scrap silver than you might have seen, if you had simply stuck to gold. 

Considering selling scrap silver? 

Cash for Your Gold should be your first port of call if you’re considering scrapping silver. We are specialists in both scrap gold and scrap silver, having worked in this sector for a number of years. 

If you wish to sell scrap silver, all you need to do is fill in our seller form and provide us with some basic information about the items you wish to sell.  

There’s no need to send an item over to us in order to get your free valuation as our scrap silver calculator is updated to reflect live spot prices. All you need to get an accurate reading of what your items could earn you are the weight and an idea about the purity of the item in question.

For more information about selling with Cash for Your Gold, don’t hesitate to call us on 01902 623 253.