Do you buy antique jewelry based on the gold weight?
Do you take the gold weight into account when you buy antique jewelry?
Would you consider melting antique jewelry because its gold value has skyrocketed?
What about platinum?
#7038 Antique gold poodle brooch. 
I'm often reprimanded because I 'forget' to consider the value of gold when I buy antique jewelry. I've explained, that honestly, I'm indifferent to the value of the gold and I buy antique jewelry based entirely on whether something about it draws me, piques my curiosity, impresses me or makes me smile. I buy it for its story, its beauty, its craftsmanship—and the spark it gives me when I first see it.
In my latest blog post, I dive into why I ignore the gold market, why antique gold isn’t always what it seems, and why I hope you’ll never melt one of my pieces. Oh, and I’ve got questions about platinum too...
#7574 Elegant, fun gold hoop earrings. 
It's true that when I write my descriptions, not only do I offer customers the weight of the jewelry, but I go to great lengths to try to ascertain the metal purity. If there are hallmarks, I show them in the pictures and describe them in the text. I see this as part of full disclosure, but I can't imagine using that as an index for pricing.
Every now and then, I'm incensed to get an email from someone complaining that the gold value of the item I'm selling is less than my asking price. If you are buying beautiful antique jewelry for gold value, you have come to the wrong person. If you intend melting my antique jewelry, I don't want to sell it to you.
When I ask a price, sometimes the seller shocks me by reminding me how the price of gold has sky-rocketed of late. So what? That is a cheap excuse for raising your price. If you raise your price because antique jewelry, at least good antique jewelry, is increasingly difficult to find and scarce, I totally get it.
Believe it or not, I have never raised prices based on the value of the gold. I may take a 2nd look at an item and realise that I've underpriced it based on today's available market. Not the gold. Again, better business people than me chastise me for this failing, but I'm not about to re-calculate the price of my jewelry because gold keeps going up.
#3930 beautiful workmanship in this gold bangle
Here are a few considerations when considering gold value and antique jewelry.
Usually, antique gold in good jewelry commands a higher price per gram/ounce than the regular price of gold. A few years ago, an Indian jewelry dealer explained: there is the price of gold (and, by the way, in India it is higher than in the USA because of luxury taxes); there is an additional premium if there is great workmanship or interesting design and a hugely higher price when the jewelry is antique. I believe this rule of thumb applies to some extent whereever you are geographically.
#6465 enormous high karat earrings 
It's very important to remember that in antique jewelry the gold is usually not homogenous. Hundreds of years ago, there were no computerised systems producing exactly this or that purity of the metal. Much jewelry was made from melted down bits of other jewelry - all of varying purities. It was melted together and then transformed into a new, handmade item. The metalsmith working by candle-light gives an idea of how sophisticated their methods were. As a result, you might test the gold in a single antique item and it is different depending on which spot is being tested. It goes without saying that different parts of a piece of jewelry that were made separately - for example the safety chain on a bracelet - are likely to be of a different karat gold. Clasps might be a lower karat because they needed to be stronger or they were exchanged during the hundreds of years' history of the piece.
Just for the record: I looked up the value of gold today, April 22nd 2025 and it's standing at US$3445.50
In April 2024 it was $2250 and in April 2023 $1958.05. We are closing in on double and the rate of increase is enormous compared to the past.
The value of platinum today is $978.10
#6766 gold sautoir - long long chain necklace 
I'm especially interested to hear what YOU have to say about the relatively LOW price of platinum. Traditionally, platinum was at leat equal to gold in value and usually higher. After more than 100 years of this pattern, platinum is now well under 1/3 of the value of gold. Why? What do you think? Should we invest in platinum?
(Note - Nobody I ever heard of dropped their prices because the price of platinum went down. I rest my case.)
This is one of a series of blog posts in which I'm commenting on 'things I noticed' in the antique jewelry world. Your input is always welcome. Email me.
Questions and comments: Please email antiques@brendaginsberg.com
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