If you have experience recycling and profiting from precious metals, chances are you have some familiarity with dental scrap. In years past (and less often during about the last 25 years), gold was often used to make fillings, caps, and even larger gold bars that were used to make bridges that were installed in patients’ mouths. Also in years past, it was common practice for dentists and dental labs to keep used gold items and, when they got around to it, to have those pieces of gold dental scrap recycled.

Our phone rang a few days ago. A woman on the other end of the line asked a question that seems to be on the minds of many people just now . . .

“I’ve been furloughed from my job and I could use some cash,” she said. “Now would be a good time for me to sell some old items of jewelry, but I can’t find any gold refineries that buy from the public near me. Even those `We Buy Gold’ roadside stores in my area have shut down during the coronavirus crisis.”

What is gold scrap, and why is it one of the best ways to invest in precious metals? In today’s post, we’ll explain.

There are different kinds of gold scrap. Let’s take a closer look.

If you like to hunt for old gold jewelry that’s worth recycling, chances are you have seen some items that match this description . . .

“It’s an old ring that’s just a piece of costume jewelry. It’s got a big fake stone in it that’s probably just made of glass. Why should I pay attention to it, when it’s probably worthless?”

What’s going on with gold prices? Here are two headlines we have seen in just the last week . . .

“Gold Prices Tumbling to Cover Margin Calls”

“Gold Prices to Surge as Coronavirus Crisis Boosts Stimulus Hopes”

But perhaps this headline is the most accurate of all . . .

Lots of self-proclaimed experts in the world of precious metals are saying negative things about pawnshops these days. But the fact is, many pawn shops are run by honest people. Although there are stories about people being treated poorly by pawn shops, they can be good places to sell certain items under certain circumstances. For example, they offer a chance to get short-term loans against the value of possessions that you probably aren’t in love with anyway. Although you could stand to lose those items, who else is going to give you a quick way to generate cash from them? Really nobody.

Every few years, a rumor starts to circulate about a new way to make a lot of money by recycling materials that contain gold, platinum, silver and other precious metals.

In today’s post, let’s explore some of these rumors and find out whether they are true or false.

We recently overheard a friend say, “I attended a wedding reception at a catering facility last week and, for the first time in my life, I used gold-plated flatware. Wow, that stuff must have been worth a fortune.”

Those gold-plated forks, knives and spoons were doing exactly what the catering hall wanted them to do, which was to add a luxurious flourish to the dining experience. Gold conveys a very exciting sense of luxury, just as it has for thousands of years.

Your husband gives you a new tablet for Chanukah. Or you get a new gaming console for Junior as a Christmas gift.

There’s no doubt about it. The holidays are the time of year when older electronic devices get replaced by new ones – often dozens of them at a time. And you have a choice. You could stick all your old devices in your dresser drawer, or you could gather them up and send them to Specialty Metals Smelters and refiners and have us recover the gold, platinum and silver they contain. Before you dismiss this suggestion because you have only five or six items, let us ask you a question . . .

Let’s say you’re roaming through an antique store and you find two eyeglass frames. One is stamped “gold filled” and the other has no markings.

What is the difference between them, and which contains more gold? Don’t worry, in today’s post, we are going to tell you.

“Is there such a thing as gold alloy?” a caller asked us recently. He then went on to explain, “I was at a coin collector’s event last month and a rather angry gentlemen told me that there is no such thing as a gold alloy. I didn’t want to get into an argument with him about it, but what’s the story? Is there really no such thing as a gold alloy?”

In today’s post, we’re going to tell you some insider’s secrets on how to extract more gold from old, used gold plating tanks. But because we know your time is valuable, we’re going to start out by telling you one of the most important things first . . .

and Other Questions to Ask at Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving will be here before you know it. We would like to make a suggestion. Instead of trying to avoid talking to old Uncle Edwin about politics while you chew your turkey, why not spend your time profitably by asking some of the questions we will explore in today’s post?

Who near you buys gold-filled jewelry, gold-plated jewelry, solid-gold jewelry, gold scrap and other gold items? 

Those questions might be the first to come to mind when you have gold items that you want to sell. But did you know that there are other, more important questions?

Recently, a man wanted to sell some old gold filled jewelry that he had inherited from an elderly aunt. There were actually quite a few items - a bracelet, a few old rings, a necklace with a pendant attached, a small decorative pin, and a few other items. So the man put all those items in a Manila envelope, got in his car, and drove to a store that displayed the sign, “We Buy Gold.”

Every few months we hear another story about a crime involving precious metals. Another one came along last week, when the Metropolitan Museum in New York packed up a golden Egyptian coffin it owned and shipped it back to Egypt, from where it was stolen in 2011. The Met acquired the coffin in 2017 from an antiquities dealer. The only problem was, it still belonged to Egypt. (You can read the full story in “Ancient Gold Coffin Returned to Egypt from New York as Looted Antiquity,” an article that was published by the Associated Press on September 25, 2019.)

Let’s say you walk into a pawnshop to check out whether there are any gold, silver or platinum items there for sale – items that you can buy for low prices. Or you walk into a coin dealer to see what’s on display.

Let’s also say that you find what seems to be a good deal. It’s a South African Kruggerand that contains 1 Troy Ounce of gold. When you ask the dealer the price, he replies, “$1,505.00, because we sell at current trading prices.” So you go online, check trading prices, and decide that you will be getting a fair deal if you buy that Kruggerand for the asking price. So you go back to the pawnshop or coin dealer, pay asking price, and assume that everything has gone well.

A customer called recently and asked us, “How much gold is in platinum?” And then he added, “I guess that is a pretty silly question, right?”

Don’t Overlook Gold-Plated Items

When most of us go looking for gold items to recycle, we look first for solid gold items, and with good reason. Even very small items made of karat gold can contain enough gold to make them worth a lot more than they appear – small items like stud earrings, tuxedo studs, lapel pins, tie tacks, and religious and commemorative medals.

“I just got a beautiful piece of silver-plated jewelry,” says a man in New York. “Is there any chance that the silver is plated over gold?”

That’s a logical question