A bullion buyer that shows its working

Most people selling gold are doing it once. They have inherited something, or cleared a house, or decided the chain in the drawer is never going to be worn again. They have no way of telling a fair offer from a poor one, and the trade has historically been quite comfortable with that.

We took the opposite view. Every offer we make states the spot price we used, the weight we measured, the fineness the test returned and the rate we pay on that category. Four numbers and three multiplications. You can check the whole thing on a phone calculator, and the spot price against any public source you like.

That is also why we do not have a shop. Overheads come out of what we can pay you, so we work by phone and by insured post instead, and put the difference back into the rate. It means we can be genuinely competitive on small lots as well as large ones.

What we buy, and what we do with it

We buy gold: bullion bars and investment coins, gold coins bought for their gold and, where it is worth more, for their rarity, jewellery from 9ct to 24ct including broken and unwanted pieces, and other gold items that fall within our purchasing criteria.

We do not currently buy silver, platinum or other precious metals. We would rather do one thing properly than quote badly on four.

We buy directly from you. There is no middleman and nothing is sold on your behalf. We take ownership of what we accept and pay you for it, then sell or refine it through established trade counterparties. That is why we can tell you the rate up front: it is our margin, not a commission taken out of somebody else’s offer.

Anti-money laundering

We are not registered with HMRC as a High Value Dealer, and we are not supervised for anti-money-laundering purposes. That registration is for businesses that make or accept large cash payments, and we never pay in cash. We still follow strict anti-money-laundering procedures: we verify the identity of every seller, ask how the items came to them, and keep a record of every transaction.

That is why we ask for identification and for some idea of where the items came from before we can pay you. It applies to everybody, including on small transactions. It is not negotiable, and a buyer who offers to skip it is telling you something about how they operate.