I want to sell my platinum ring – it says 950 on the inside. It weighs about 1 – 1.5 ounces. How do I quickly proceed? How long does it take? Thanks. From Andrew in North Bend, Washington.

Hi Andrew,

This sounds too heavy for a ring, but the mark you are referring to indicates the purity of your platinum ring. The “950” marking means that your ring is made of 95% pure platinum and is alloyed with 5% of some other metal. As a precious metal refiner we only take into account the weight, purity and daily platinum price. So the maker, place of origin, quality, and date made may affect the retail value, but will have no consideration in the precious value melt value of the platinum.

As for time, we typically can return a check to you within 7 business days (usually less) of receiving your material. And if we do not have to run further testing on the purity, it should take less than 7 days. We return 70% of the fine platinum value based on the weight and market price.

Hope that helps you out. Here is our packing slip should you decide to sell: http://archenterprises.com/packingSlip.pdf

Hi, we have high silver containing sludge from DE-brazing tungsten carbide mining tools. Do you recover silver from this sludge? From Jain in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Hi Jain,

We do have the capabilities to recover the silver from the tungsten silver sludge that you describe. As a precious metal refiner, our facility is designed specifically to handle this type of industrial material.

It would be helpful to know the weight of your material. We would recommend having at least 5 lbs. of silver sludge material to justify the freight and refining costs. If you are unsure about the purity of your sludge, we can arrange to test a sample of the material before you ship the whole amount.

We would first require a sample of your tungsten silver sludge and then could give a more accurate percentage and price when we know the purity and volume of your material.

I have two dental crowns, two gold molars made of mixed metal, according to my dentist. He said metal refiners buy such things and break them down into their separate metals. Do you do that? Thanks from Brett in Milwaukee, WI.

Hi Brett,

Yes! As a precious metal refiner we have the capabilities to recover gold from the dental items you have described. Since dental gold is not hallmarked like gold jewelry (14k, 18k etc), you need to make sure that your buyer has the ability to find the exact purity of your items, as dental gold can really vary in purity. We have seen dental gold to be as high as 85% gold, while other times it can be as low as 15%. However, most of the dental gold we see is about 12k, which is 66.66% gold. We run tests with an XRF analytical machine to determine how much gold is available to refine. An at home gold kit may not suffice to give accurate results for the purity of dental gold.

Our next-step advice for you is to make sure that your items are as separated from other non-precious metals and materials and you can get them, then weight on a postal scale. You can refer to our payout schedule for gold, but note that these percentages are based on the actual gold content (not the total weight of your items).

You can refer to our Dental Gold category for more posts about refining dental gold. Thanks for your question Brett!