Guies
El que us diria un joier des de l’altra banda del taulell, posat per escrit. De lectura lliure i sense compte.
Les guies es publiquen en anglès.
How to tell if a diamond is real
The home tests that mean something, the ones that do not, and what a loupe, a dual tester or a laboratory can actually settle about your stone.
How to read gold hallmarks: 375, 585 and 750
What the three-digit fineness numbers mean, the marks struck beside them, and why a missing hallmark is weaker evidence than most people assume.
925, 800 and the silver marks that mean something
What 925, 958, 800 and 900 mean, the lion passant and the assay office towns, and how to separate solid silver from plate by wear, weight and a magnet.
Your ring has no hallmark. What that does and does not mean
Small pieces are legally exempt, marks wear off and resizing removes them. What an unmarked ring does and does not prove, and the tests that settle it.
What is my jewellery worth? Melt, resale and retail
Why one piece has three different values, how melt is calculated from weight and fineness, and what a second-hand diamond ring really fetches.
Lab-grown or natural? What a photograph can and cannot show
Lab-grown and natural diamonds are the same material, so no photograph or home test separates them. What growth type, girdle inscriptions and a lab can show.
Real, cultured or plastic? Testing a strand of pearls
Natural, cultured and imitation pearls differ in ways you can check: the tooth test, the drill hole under a loupe, surface, weight and first touch.
Heated, oiled, filled: treatments and what they cost you
Heat, oil, glass filling, diffusion and dye: which gemstone treatments the trade expects, which ones destroy value, and what only a laboratory settles.
How to photograph jewellery so it can be identified
Diffuse daylight, a plain mid-tone background, a macro of the hallmark and a side view of the stone. A practical checklist for photographing jewellery.
Inherited jewellery: what to do first
Do not clean it. Photograph everything as found, keep the boxes and papers, list before you divide, and get the valuation basis right before anyone sells.
Where to sell jewellery, and what each route takes
Scrap buyer, pawnbroker, jeweller, consignment, auction, marketplace or specialist: what each route takes out of the price, and how long each one takes.
Insuring jewellery: what your insurer actually needs
Insurers want retail replacement, not resale or melt. What a valuation document must contain, when to revalue, and what happens when you come to claim.
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