On , 18-carat gold is bought back at 81.41 €/g by Gold & Silver Company, a Belgian refinery open to private clients; 22-carat at 100.62 €/g, 14-carat at 62.23 €/g, 9-carat at 38.21 €/g, the 20 F Napoleon at 660.04 € per coin. Net prices, published and updated several times a day.
The question that reveals your buyer
Ask it of whoever offers to buy back your jewellery: “and afterwards, what do you do with it?”. With many buyers, the honest answer is “it leaves”: to a wholesaler, then a smelter, then a refinery that will never know your name. Each link lives on the difference between what it pays and what it sells for, and it is on your price per gram that it takes that difference. At Gold & Silver Company, a smelter-refinery approved by the Royal Mint of Belgium, in Dottignies (Mouscron), the answer fits in one sentence: your gold does not leave the building. It comes in as jewellery, it goes out as a bar.
On the table, in front of you: weighing, testing, offer
Everything starts at the office of our refinery, before your eyes. Your jewellery is weighed to the hundredth of a gram on a calibrated scale, stones and non-gold clasps removed; the fineness is checked in the laboratory; the offer is made to you line by line, at the price published above for each carat. You remain free: if the offer does not suit you, you leave with your items. If it suits you, payment follows by bank transfer, or up to 500 euros in cash, the ceiling set by Belgian law for the buyback of precious metals.
In the crucible: melting and exact analysis
Once the sale is concluded, the piece of jewellery is melted, still before your eyes, then the homogeneous metal goes through the spectrometer for the exact assay: only a melted metal can be assayed properly. Forty years on a finger are over in a few minutes in a crucible, and that is not the end: gold does not wear out, does not rust, does not degrade; it can be remelted indefinitely without losing an atom of its value.
In the laboratory: gold becomes fine gold again
The melted metal then goes to refining, a few metres further on: granulation, separation of the metals, purification. The gold separates from the copper and the silver that accompanied it in the 18-carat alloy and rises back to the purity of investment gold. Let us be precise about a point that nobody writes down: your piece of jewellery does not become “your” named bar. It is refined together with the house's other intakes, inherited jewellery, unmatched pieces, workshop scrap. What remains individual is the trace: your transaction is recorded in our registers as a licensed professional, with a number, a date and an invoice, under the supervision of the Belgian authorities.
Casting: a bar struck with our brand
The refined gold is cast into bars struck with the Gold & Silver Company brand, in a house approved by the Royal Mint of Belgium, entered in the Guarantee Register and controlled by an approved assayer: same purity, same quotation as any bar on the market. About a quarter of the world's gold supply today comes from recycling; ours comes from Europe, from jewellery bought back face to face, backed by an identity document. Yesterday's signet ring may sleep for twenty years in a safe in the form of a bar, before being passed on, resold or melted down again.
What this circuit changes for your price
Selling to the refinery that transforms the metal itself is the guarantee that no intermediary takes a cut of your price: every link your gold does not pass through is a margin that nobody takes between you and the value of the metal. That is why the price displayed at the top of this page is the price paid: nothing is added, nothing is deducted. The next time you sell gold, ask the question; if the answer is “follow me, the crucible is next door”, you are with us.
To find out what your gold is worth, the simplest thing is to bring it to us: the office of our refinery, rue Arthur Roelandt 22 in Dottignies (Mouscron), is open on Mondays from 10am to 1pm, Tuesday to Thursday from 10am to 12pm and from 1:30pm to 5pm, and on Fridays and Saturdays from 10am to 1pm, without appointment; weighing and analysis before your eyes, immediate offer at the published price, and you remain free. Too far? One call to +32 56 33 19 96 and your registered shipment is taken care of in the same way. Our prices today: private client rates.
Frequently asked questions
Can I watch my jewellery being melted?
Yes, that is the very principle: weighing, testing, melting and analysis take place before your eyes at the office of our refinery, before payment. Refining in the laboratory is then done in batches, and your transaction remains individually traced in our registers.
Why melt a piece of jewellery rather than resell it as it is?
Because on buyback, it is the metal that carries the value: gold is paid by the gram and by the fineness, not by the design; today 81.41 €/g for 18-carat gold. A signed piece or an exceptional item is identified at the appraisal, before any melting.
Does the final bar keep a trace of my jewellery?
Not in the metal: once refined, your gold is indistinguishable from another intake, and that is what gives it back its full value. The trace exists in our registers as a licensed professional: number, date, invoice.
Is my gold resold to someone else before being melted?
No. Gold & Silver Company melts, analyses and refines itself, in its workshops in Dottignies (Mouscron); your gold is entrusted to no intermediary.
What happens to the stones and the clasps?
Stones and non-gold elements are removed before weighing; only the gold weight at the measured fineness is paid, at the published price.
How does payment work?
By bank transfer within five working days; at the office, up to 500 euros in cash, the ceiling set by Belgian law for the buyback of precious metals.
See also: What is the buyback price of 18-carat gold today? · Selling your gold in Belgium: price, expertise and the precious metals chain · How much is my gold worth today? · Jeweller or specialist gold buyer: who should you sell your gold to?.