Don't believe everything you read!

[Paulmarr]

Last week SA Bogan and myself went to the scrappers to cash in our 2014 finds, and I was quite surprised by what we learned from the process.

We went to a very prominent gold buyer in the city who was a lovely chap, and spent some time with us sharing his experience with gold jewelry. It was well worth the visit.

He has a cool electronic machine called an XRF which looks like a laser gun, can cost up to $20K to buy a new one, and instantly analyses the metal content by percentage of the item being scanned. He weighed each piece (after scratching each piece to confirm it is not plated) and then scanned it for the gold content and we were quite surprised. The weights were spot on with what we had weighed them in at when we found them, but the hallmarks on the inside of the rings do not all reflect the correct gold content percentage!

There were a couple of rings marked as 14K which came in at 13.5K on the XRF machine. I found a 22K ring which was marked as such that came in at 19K. All the 9K came out correctly as 9K bar one ring which was actually 10K. We had one ring that was marked 14K that came in at 14.5K - and I had a good win with an earring with no hallmark that SA Bogan has been stirring me up about - he thought it was possibly plated but at 5 grams it registered at 14K so happy days boy!

All in all a good educational visit - if I EVER buy gold jewelry I will immediately take it for an XRF scan and evaluation before letting the saleman off the hook - you just don't know how you will be fleeced - fake stones - bad cuts - undesirable colour of the diamond - or LESS GOLD THAN STATED!

Needless to say we had a Merry Christmas! I look forward to 2015 - GOLD BABY!

 

[Sandta]

Very good info guys , thanks.
What about the stones ?
Did you take them out ?
Do you get any credit for them ?
Do you take them elsewhere?

 

[Paulmarr]

None of the stones in the rings we scrapped had any value - they were removed by the dealer and given back to us however a couple of the stones like the opal broke trying to remove it.

The dealers only buy diamonds and good quality ones - not interested in anything else.

 

[Moneybox]

The XRF machine is fantastic. One of my clients is a geologist who owns a drill rig. He dropped in to have his vehicle serviced and told me about this thing. I asked him for a demo. He said "give me a rock" so I grabbed a piece of concrete that was broken off the kerb outside my office. The reading came up in a few seconds giving the percentage of all the minerals that made up the chunk of concrete. He hires it whenever he needs it. I'd love to take one into the goldfields to check out the rocks accompanying my nugget finds.

 

[Goldpick]

Pretty handy devices, my license to operate an XRF just expired recently, as I used to use them a fair bit for exploration work.

Paul, are the proceeds going towards an updated detector?

 

[Paulmarr]

Hi GP

No ... I think we have cornered the Market with the CTX, Sovereign, and Explorer - and with the beaches still sanded in Team Bogan is taking a break from detecting until conditions improve. I counted approx. 100 hunts conducted by us in 2014 - so we came to the conclusion we should use our time wisely and not go out when chances of success are slim. We both have many hobbies - currently we are rebuilding a couple of Postie bikes to go on an extended detecting trips out in the bush which is keeping us busy at the moment. The SDC will probably be our next purchase

 

[20x]

Last week SA Bogan and myself went to the scrappers to cash in our 2014 finds, and I was quite surprised by what we learned from the process.

We went to a very prominent gold buyer in the city who was a lovely chap, and spent some time with us sharing his experience with gold jewelry. It was well worth the visit.

He has a cool electronic machine called an XRF which looks like a laser gun, can cost up to $20K to buy a new one, and instantly analyses the metal content by percentage of the item being scanned. He weighed each piece (after scratching each piece to confirm it is not plated) and then scanned it for the gold content and we were quite surprised. The weights were spot on with what we had weighed them in at when we found them, but the hallmarks on the inside of the rings do not all reflect the correct gold content percentage!

There were a couple of rings marked as 14K which came in at 13.5K on the XRF machine. I found a 22K ring which was marked as such that came in at 19K. All the 9K came out correctly as 9K bar one ring which was actually 10K. We had one ring that was marked 14K that came in at 14.5K - and I had a good win with an earring with no hallmark that SA Bogan has been stirring me up about - he thought it was possibly plated but at 5 grams it registered at 14K so happy days boy!

All in all a good educational visit - if I EVER buy gold jewelry I will immediately take it for an XRF scan and evaluation before letting the saleman off the hook - you just don't know how you will be fleeced - fake stones - bad cuts - undesirable colour of the diamond - or LESS GOLD THAN STATED!

Needless to say we had a Merry Christmas! I look forward to 2015 - GOLD BABY!

sounds like the same place i go...highest purity of aluvial gold ive taken there was only 22%, but that doesnt effect the price in weight to be lower than the gold price on the day. awsome machine he's got ey