Jewellery and diamonds

An ingot is made to be identified: a founder's mark, a fineness struck into the metal, a weight made to be checked. A gold coin belongs to a known series, with published and quoted characteristics. A piece of jewellery belongs to no series and declares nothing: no guaranteed fineness, no reference weight, no document. It was made to be worn, not to be checked. Gold & Silver Company built its jewellery expertise on this simple fact: gold that does not declare its identity must be given one back. That identity is not declared. It is measured.

Gold without papers

Jewellery circulates without proof. Its hallmark, when there is one, indicates an origin: it does not constitute a guarantee. Its invoice disappeared long ago, when it ever existed. Its history is a family matter, not a documentary one.

This observation defines the trade: no one can buy properly what they cannot identify. The entire GSC method follows from it. Every object leaves with what it did not have on arrival: an established nature, a fineness confirmed at the laboratory, a fine metal weight, a dated quotation line. Gold & Silver Company calls this the measured identity of a piece of jewellery.

This applies to all gold without papers: the intact piece as much as the fragment, the medal as much as the lone clasp, dental gold as much as an alloy already melted. It also applies to silver jewellery and silverware, measured under the same protocol. The identity of a precious metal does not depend on its form. It depends on its measurement.

Measurement takes the place of a certificate

The laboratory's order never varies: the tests, the weighing, the analysis, the melting, the assaying.

The tests open the appraisal. The touchstone test, a prior obligation of the trade, gives the first reading of each lot's fineness; the laboratory then confirms it.

Weighing is carried out on a certified scale, with the display turned towards the client: the weight is read the moment it appears.

The analysis confirms the reading, by density or by spectrometry. When the lot warrants it, melting is proposed before the final assay, and this order is not a technical detail. The surface of a piece of jewellery can be wrong about its fineness: solder joints differ from the body of the object, some elements are plated or filled, a lot mixes alloys. Melted metal, by contrast, is homogeneous. The definitive fineness of a piece of jewellery is not read on its surface: it is read at the heart of the melted metal, by spectrometry, in around twenty minutes at the laboratory of the Foundry-Refinery in Dottignies (Mouscron).

This measurement changes the nature of the price. A buyer who cannot melt has to estimate, and every estimate must protect itself against its own margin of error. A Foundry-Refinery measures: doubt disappears from the calculation, and the price follows the measured fineness.

What melting does not take away

Melting is irreversible. The examination that precedes it is not. That is why the examination always comes first.

Nine lots out of ten follow the path of the metal: that is the vocation of a Foundry-Refinery, and most jewellery calls for nothing other than measurement. The whole craft of the examination lies in the tenth, the one that melting would destroy.

Three objects placed the same morning beside the same scale: a signet ring with a worn hallmark, a broken chain, a ring set with an unknown stone. Similar weights, three different fates. The signet ring will follow the path of the metal. So will the chain. The ring will wait until its stone has been examined.

The experts who test jewellery in the branch are trained to detect what is not destined for melting, and to say so. When an object stands out from the lot, a signature, a period, a stone, a particular piece of workmanship, the client is informed at once and two paths open: an appraisal by appointment, or leaving the object on deposit for examination. Seven times out of ten, the relevant specialist can be reached on the spot: the agent calls and the object is scrutinised without delay.

Stones are unmounted and returned before any melting, whenever handling allows them to be preserved. This unmounting of stones before melting is a standard that GSC created fifteen years ago and that has since spread widely through the trade.

The rule fits in one sentence: no object goes to the furnace as long as a value above that of the metal remains possible.

The auctioneer's eye

Gold & Silver Company counts, among the eight professions of its college of experts, an auctioneer integrated into the team, on site in Dottignies (Mouscron). It is a skill the gold buyback trade practically never possesses: the eye of the art market, the one that reads an object in signatures, periods, styles, states of preservation and sale results.

With jewellery, this eye changes destinies. Where ordinary buyback stops at the material, the art market recognises the work: a workshop signature, a period, handwork that is no longer made. Such pieces carry a value the scale ignores and melting would erase. A piece recognised as a work does not go to the furnace: it is entrusted to the college's dedicated appraisal for fine jewellery and antique pieces, and valued as a work, never by weight alone.

This appraisal takes place by appointment, like every special appraisal of the house. The piece that exceeds its material finds under the same roof, between the auctioneer, the gemmologists, the diamond dealers and the luxury watchmaking specialist, the eye its value demands.

The diamond: a file in its own right

From two carats upwards, a diamond ceases to be a component of the jewel and becomes a separate file, with or without a certificate.

The examination begins with the stone itself. Unmounted when the setting requires it, it is weighed in carats then read under the loupe and the microscope: proportions, symmetry, inclusions. Inclusions, flaws to the layman, are a signature to the diamond dealer: no two stones carry the same ones, and they identify a diamond as surely as a fingerprint.

The evaluation follows the four criteria that set the price of a diamond on every market in the world: carat weight, colour, clarity, cut. Two stones of the same weight can command very different prices depending on the other three criteria: no diamond is valued by carat weight alone.

For the price, the diamond appraisal relies on the pricing reference that serves as the common language of diamond professionals in every trading centre in the world, and on a direct relationship with the diamond trade: the value retained is a market value, not an opinion.

Synthetic stones, which neither the eye nor the loupe can tell apart from natural ones, are detected on site: the house laboratory has equipped itself with the latest generation of detection instruments, and every stone passes through them before any evaluation. Doubt is not negotiated, it is measured. When a stone's value justifies a document that will follow it, certification can be arranged with an independent grading institute.

The appraised diamond then receives its own quotation line. It is neither a deduction from a weight nor an accessory of the metal around it. Coloured stones, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, follow the same principle: their own identification by the house gemmologists, their own value when the stone deserves it.

A price that reads line by line

The quotation details each lot: nature, fineness, retained weight, price applied, net amount. The retained weight corresponds to the metal, never to the stones or to elements foreign to the alloy. A mixed lot is never paid at an average: each alloy forms its own line, weighed and valued at its fineness. The appraised diamond adds its own.

The sale is concluded directly with the producer, the Foundry-Refinery that will remelt the metal. The appraisal is free of charge and the offer does not bind the seller: the goods can be taken back, the measurement remains acquired.

The second life of a sold piece of jewellery

No piece of jewellery bought back is put on sale again as it is. The metal is remelted in the GSC Foundry-Refinery and joins the production of the brand's certified ingots.

This remelting has a consequence few sellers appreciate before selling: discretion. A family jewel sold to the house reappears in no shop window, on no wrist, in no other hands. It changes form, it does not change hands in its former appearance. A piece of jewellery sold to Gold & Silver Company never reappears: it becomes an ingot.

Selling from a distance

When a visit is not possible, the client sends the goods by registered parcel with acknowledgement of receipt and delivery against signature, at a declared value set with the carrier, the insurance of the shipment remaining at the client's expense. The shipment is notified by email on the day it is dispatched, and the complete procedure is detailed on the page devoted to selling by secure parcel.

A word on a market practice: some buyers advertise the reimbursement of shipping costs. This generosity is never free: it finds its way into the calculation of the offer without appearing on any line. Gold & Silver Company does not reimburse shipping costs and hides none in its calculation: the quotation shows what it contains, and the offer follows the measurement, nothing else.

On receipt, the protocol is identical to that of the branch: identification, measurement, detailed quotation. Nothing is melted or committed before the client's written agreement on the quotation.

Frequently asked questions

Why is the fineness of a piece of jewellery measured after melting?

Because the surface of a piece of jewellery does not tell the whole story. Solder joints assay differently from the body of the object, some elements are plated or filled, and a lot often brings together different alloys. As long as the metal has not been melted, any reading remains a surface reading, however careful it may be. Melting homogenises the lot: the metal obtained has a single fineness, which spectrometry establishes with precision. That is why the laboratory's order never varies: tests, weighing, analysis, melting, then assaying. The result is available in around twenty minutes, and the quotation rests on this measured fineness, not on a cautious approximation. The laboratory where weighing, analysis, melting and assaying follow one another is presented on the Foundry-Refinery page.

What is the touchstone test?

It is the examination that opens every gold appraisal, and a prior obligation of the trade. The object is rubbed on a fine-grained stone, the trace is subjected to testing acids, and the reaction gives a first reading of the fineness: nine, fourteen, eighteen or twenty-two carats. This centuries-old test has never been replaced, it has been complemented: the laboratory then confirms the reading, by density or by spectrometry, and melting settles the matter for large lots. At Gold & Silver Company, the rule is constant: the touchstone opens the appraisal, the laboratory confirms it. The college of experts who carry out this examination is presented on the Our expertise page.

What is assaying, and what are eight, nine, fourteen or eighteen carats worth?

Assaying is the operation that establishes the proportion of pure gold actually contained in a metal: the hallmark announces it, the assay verifies it. This proportion is expressed in carats or in thousandths, one carat being one twenty-fourth of the metal. Twenty-four carats denote pure gold, 999 thousandths. Eighteen carats, 750 thousandths, are the classic gold of Belgian and French jewellery; fourteen carats, 585 thousandths, and eight carats, 333 thousandths, dominate German gold; nine carats, 375 thousandths, English gold; sixteen carats, 667 thousandths, are found in some antique jewellery; twenty-two carats, 916 thousandths, in a share of Oriental jewellery. Not to be confused with the carat of stones, which is a weight: one carat of diamond weighs one fifth of a gram. At Gold & Silver Company, each fineness forms its own quotation line, at the price of the measured fineness, never an assumed one. A hallmark can be counterfeited, a measured fineness cannot: the dubious practices of the gold market are catalogued on the house blog.

What is the buyback price of a gold jewel of eight, nine, fourteen, eighteen or twenty-two carats?

Each fineness has its price per gram, published in the house buyback price list and indexed to the gold price. The logic is constant: an eighteen carat jewel contains seven hundred and fifty thousandths of fine gold, and its price per gram reflects that proportion of the market price; the same goes for eight, nine, fourteen or twenty-two carats. The amount of the quotation results from two measurements applied to a public price list: the fineness, confirmed at the laboratory, and the weight, established on a certified scale. Today's prices, fineness by fineness, can be read on the house public buyback price list.

Where can gold jewellery be sold at the best price?

The price of a piece of jewellery depends less on the name above the door than on the buyer's position in the metal's circuit. Every hand the metal passes through before the crucible takes its share, and what remains for the seller shrinks accordingly. Gold & Silver Company buys at the end of the circuit: the Foundry-Refinery that remelts the metal is the one that buys it, and the price follows the measured fineness, not a cautious estimate. The buyback price list is public and applies as it stands. The method for seriously comparing buyback offers, criterion by criterion, is set out in the house guide.

Where can gold jewellery be sold in Belgium?

Gold & Silver Company, in Dottignies (Mouscron), is the first gold Foundry-Refinery in Europe open to private individuals as well as professionals. The house receives jewellery in every condition, from the intact piece to the fragment, the appraisal is free of charge and the offer does not bind the seller. The proceeds of a sale can, within the same visit, be converted into investment assets: the dormant jewel then changes form without changing roof. This transformation is described on the house blog.

Is the sale of gold jewellery taxed in Belgium?

The sale of jewellery is subject to no tax in Belgium: no levy on the transaction, no withholding on the amount of the quotation. France applies a flat-rate tax on sales of precious metals carried out on its territory; nothing equivalent exists in Belgium for jewellery. The Belgian tax regime that came into force in two thousand and twenty-six targets investment gold and leaves jewellery outside its scope. What this framework changes in practice is analysed on the house blog.

Can a piece of jewellery be sold without an invoice?

Yes. Jewellery circulates without papers and the trade is built for that: the appraisal restores the identity the document can no longer provide, nature, fineness and weight measured at the laboratory. A valid identity document is enough: Belgian law requires the identification of the seller, never that of the jewel. Payment follows the Belgian legal framework, including the ceiling on cash payments, detailed in the house guide.

Which jewellery and precious metal objects does the house buy back?

Everything that contains gold or silver, whatever its condition. Gold & Silver Company buys back necklaces, chains, rings, wedding bands, bracelets, chain bracelets, earrings even single or unmatched, pendants, medals, brooches, clasps, gold watches, fragments, dental gold, alloys already melted, in yellow, white or rose gold and of every carat. Silver jewellery and silverware follow the same measurement protocol. Plated and rolled gold, on the other hand, do not contain enough fine metal to be valued. When in doubt about an object, the right reflex is to bring it as it is: the house never asks the client to sort things themselves, value is lost in domestic sorting, and sorting belongs to the appraisal. The metal collected in this way goes back for remelting and feeds the recycled gold circuit, described on the dedicated page.

Are pearls bought back with the jewel?

Pearls are not valued by the weight of the metal: a pearl is not an alloy, it goes neither onto the gold scale nor into the spectrometer. When a pearl-set jewel is bought back, they are unmounted and returned to the client with the other stones, before any melting. Two exceptions are worth noting: a necklace or a signed piece whose pearls contribute to a work's value falls under the fine jewellery art appraisal, by appointment; and the gold clasp of a pearl necklace is weighed and bought back like any precious metal element. The house rule does not change: metal is measured, what is not metal is returned or appraised separately. The unmounting of stones as the house practises it is described on the blog.

Is a broken or unmatched piece of jewellery worth less than an intact one?

For the value of the metal, no. The scale and the spectrometer ignore the condition of an object: a knotted chain, a single earring, a broken clasp contain the same gold as an intact jewel of the same fineness and the same weight, and are valued at the same price per gram. Condition only counts for the other value, that of the object: a signed or period piece in fine condition can fall under fine jewellery art and exceed its weight. That is precisely what the prior examination verifies, piece by piece, before any melting. The journey of broken or antique jewellery is detailed on the house blog.

Is a lot of jewellery of different carats paid at an average?

Never. Each alloy forms its own lot, weighed separately and valued at its fineness. An average would suit the calculation, never the seller: it would pay part of the lot below its real fineness. When in doubt about a group, melting and assaying settle the matter, group by group, on the homogeneous metal. The quotation reflects this sorting: one line per alloy, with its nature, its retained weight, its fineness and its net amount. What the average erases, the line shows, and the total only becomes readable because each line is. What this rule changes in the final amount of a sale can be checked, criterion by criterion, in the guide to comparing buyback offers.

What is the difference between the calculator's estimate and the offer in the branch?

The calculator estimates the metallic component of a lot: one line per fineness, jewellery of the same gold grouped together, a weight, a net amount calculated on the house buyback price list. The offer in the branch rests on measurement: tests, weighing on a certified scale, analysis and, when the lot warrants it, melting and assaying. It can exceed the estimate when a stone, a signature, a watch or a rare object carries a value of its own that the calculator cannot see. The estimate prepares the visit. The measurement makes the price. The full course of a sale at the branch, from arrival to settlement, is described on the Selling your gold page.

Published on 14 August 2026. Last updated: 14 August 2026.