Almost made an expensive mistake

[randazzo1]

I picked up the bracelet below for a dollar or two in a thrift shop some time ago. It’s 14k and onyx and weighed 24.4 grams. I stupidly assumed the onyx was the bulk of the weight. I wasn’t able to sell it on ebay - lowered down to $390 obo. So i decided to scrap it, figuring I’d get 10 or 12 grams of gold. Well I was pleasantly surprised to discover those onyx beads only weigh about a gram each. So now I’m looking at almost $500 from the refiner. Crazy.

 

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[trdhrdr007]

I remove all the stones from jewelry I send to the refiner. When I have a piece I need to estimate the weight on I pull out my bag of stones, dig through until I find one of similar size, weigh it, & use that weight to estimate the gold content of a piece.

This reminded me of a similar story. I bought a huge coin collection a few years back. There was an almost complete date set of Washington quarters. I skimmed through, pulled the key dates, & put it up for sale at the antique mall. When it hadn't sold in several months I brought it home. I had more time then & started looking through the album. Turned out there was a 1942-D doubled die obverse in the set. It was worth more than what I had the entire set priced for.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Good save, an interesting piece!