The Semantics and Emotions of Scrapping Gold and Silver

A major part of our work involves buying unwanted items of gold and silver. We busily travel the length and breadth of Devon and Cornwall hoovering up as much as we can and in the process putting cash into the bank accounts of our clients. It’s a straight forward business but one quite often tinged with elements of sadness as we convert our customers gold and silver items into money.

It’s very common for us to be dealing with a not immodest heap of gold jewellery that once belonged to someone’s now departed relative. Rings, necklaces, bracelets, chains, charm bracelets and so on usually purchased at least one generation back and passed onto the current owner. In most cases almost all of these items will find their way into a bullion dealers smelter to be melted down and refined. Now and again you can clearly see the pain behind the transaction and moments of hesitation or even guilt. More often than not the issue is resolved internally and the deal done.

Somewhat unfortunately our industry tends to refer to such items as “Scrap” which is perhaps an inappropriate term for what can be an emotive moment. We much prefer to think of it as recycling which seems something of a softer expression and manages to make more sense of the process. These metals are so valuable that they never go to waste – they are recycled into “fresh” gold or silver that is destined to be used in a myriad of uses ranging from jewellery to industrial applications. And technically it is also “reduced” – quite often being refined back to a much higher purity than the original item.

So, if you have any gold, silver, platinum or palladium that you would like to be recycled and you live in the Plymouth, South East Cornwall, West Devon, Torbay, The South Hams or anywhere in between please do get in touch.