Collector value or material value: when not to melt

The rule, and the exception

The rule: if a piece was made in large numbers and many still exist, the metal sets the price. That holds for the great majority of Dutch gold ten-guilder pieces, for silver rijksdaalders and guilders, for modern bullion coins and for virtually all jewellery without a maker's name.

The exception is rarity combined with condition. One of the two is usually not enough: a rare year in worn condition stays close to material value, and a beautifully kept piece from a run of millions does too.

There is a third category that is often forgotten: pieces worth more together than apart. A complete canteen of silver cutlery in its original case, a jewellery set with matching earrings, a coin series with every year. Whoever splits those up takes the added value out.

What to look for on coins

Four features, in order of how often they make the difference.

• Year and mint mark. On Dutch coins the mint mark – the caduceus, the fish, the seahorse – sits on the edge or beside the year. Some combinations were struck in small numbers.
• Condition. Signs of circulation push collector value down hard. A piece that never circulated is a different market from the same piece out of a wallet.
• Original packaging and certificate. On modern proof issues the box and the number count; without those two the piece sinks towards material value.
• Errors. A misstrike, a double strike, a wrong edge. Rare, but the category holding the largest differences.

What to look for on jewellery and watches

With jewellery it is nearly always the name that does it. A signed piece from a known house, a silversmith's maker's mark, a datable model from a recognisable period – those are the signs that a market exists above the metal.

With watches the rule is simpler and stricter: make, reference number and whether the papers are still there. Weighing a gold case and settling on material value is, with a watch of any name, almost always the most expensive mistake you can make.

And with stones: a certified diamond of half a carat or more is worth its own valuation, separate from the gold around it.

What we do when it is worth more

Then we say so. Not out of kindness but because it comes out sooner or later, and a buyer who has walked off with a rare piece at melt value has a customer exactly once.

In practice it comes down to this: we value both and name both. You hear what it fetches as material and what we think it does as a collector's piece. If the second is higher, that is the offer – or the advice to take it to an auction or a specialist dealer, even when we earn nothing by it.

If you are unsure yourself, the safe order is: have it looked at first, decide afterwards. A valuation costs nothing and commits you to nothing; melting is final.