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Not sure where to post this, so this forum looked like a good place...
As part of my parent's estate, my siblings and I each inherited containers full of our mom's old jewelry. All of her jewelry was lumped together and then randomly split amongst the kids. Frankly, I don't know which is real and which is costume.
Is there a place I can bring it to have someone go over it and tell me what's what? I was thinking maybe a jeweler, but not sure if they did this type of service. Before I went down that road I wanted to see if anyone had a similar experience.
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"I don't understand. But I don't care, so it works out."
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stripes17
Not sure where to post this, so this forum looked like a good place...
As part of my parent's estate, my siblings and I each inherited containers full of our mom's old jewelry. All of her jewelry was lumped together and then randomly split amongst the kids. Frankly, I don't know which is real and which is costume.
Is there a place I can bring it to have someone go over it and tell me what's what? I was thinking maybe a jeweler, but not sure if they did this type of service. Before I went down that road I wanted to see if anyone had a similar experience.
Yes, I had this exact experience.
I had a niece who knew a jewelry who did it free, but I don't think it would cost much to have a jeweler sort through "costume" and "greater value" jewelry.
You're not asking for estimates, just whether something has value or not - so pretty easy for a jeweler.
You can also get a strong magnifier, and at the jewelry - silver will have a stamp, and so will gold.
I would bring it to a jewelry appraiser. They have the skills of a jeweler but can give each an estimate of value for insurance purposes. Assuming there aren’t dozens of pieces should be pretty inexpensive. A good one with solid reviews will do gold, gemstones, pearls, etc. and tell you which are real and valuable, which are real but inexpensive and which are costume.
Pretty much any jewelry store could probably help you for a small fee. They probably can go through quickly and separate any costume jewelry and precious metal ( gold, silver, platinum) and gemstones. Most costume jewelry won't have much if any value, but could. They could tell you if gold or just gold plated. Any antique/vintage would be easy for them to point out. Having an appraisal done would be a different thing and may not really be necessary, but you could ask then if anything should be appraised.
You can usually find gold marks if gold somewhere on jewelry, 18kt, 14kt, 10kt or marked sterling. But you may need a magnifying glass and good eyes. Gem stones though you can only guess. Jewelers should have a gemstone tester.
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