After this year’s UN Climate Conference, COP26, hosted in Glasgow, industries such as the gold market are under pressure to embrace greater sustainability. Selling more scrap gold could be just the ticket to helping make gold much greener. That’s because a large chunk of the world’s gold supply is recycled.
You only need to look at costs to assess why recycling is preferable to sourcing gold through mining. The gold price is high, reflecting how ideal it is for selling any gold you have. Gold mining, which ultimately sources most of the world’s gold, also comes at a high price, but to the planet at large. For every troy ounce the world produces, 0.8 tonnes of CO2e are emitted. If we are to put all of our eggs into the gold mining basket, we only add to the scale of our climate challenge.
Recycling gold, on the other hand, is significantly more convenient to do, helps you make some money and also saves tonnes of carbon from being emitted through mining. It all starts with simply selling gold you already have, to Scrap Gold UK. Gold is seen as having great intrinsic value, hardly oxidising, and it can be melted down and reshaped into new items over and over again without losing that shine.
The World Gold Council estimated that 28 per cent of the world’s gold was sourced through recycling alone in 2020. It’s a tried and tested practice which has been carried out for generations. At times when supplies of gold were scarce, mines ran dry and the gold rush was seemingly over, melting down and recycling existing gold was the next best thing. In a modern context, it is significantly less costly to the planet, and keeps supply chains in a more circular resource loop. Why dig for more gold, when we’ve got plenty to recycle up on the surface?
Recycling gold is just one aspect of what is touted as a circular economy: a world in which resources can be consumed, recycled and reused before the process is repeated ad infinitum. By setting our sights away from plundering the planet for more resources, recycling is a natural approach which helps maintain a circular economy within the gold market. By selling scrap gold with Scrap Gold UK, for example, you are helping reduce demand for fresh gold to be mined, by providing more of it ready to be recycled.
Not only do mines produce carbon through their activities, but also often release toxic waste products into the environment. Lower demand for mined gold means less of these nasty side effects. It’s a rebalancing act, and you could be pivotal in making it happen sooner rather than later.
Whether you possess rose gold or white gold, dental gold or jewellery, this precious metal can come in all shapes and sizes. Scrap Gold UK are gold specialists who have been helping facilitate sales of gold for a number of years now. If gold is to maintain its shine, it should also embrace the greener way of doing things. To learn more about selling gold, get in touch with us today.
Copyright: bashta
Silver coins were considered a measure of true value as far back as the Middle Ages. Often, these coins were minted with silver at the highest purity available, but those responsible for minting them soon realised they needed to be slightly less than pure (92.5 per cent to be precise), to ensure they could withstand regular wear and tear. The remaining 7.5 per cent was often filled in with copper. As a result, for much of English history, silver coins of the highest purity tended to be .925 purity at most. However, if you have a load of old silver coins from days gone by, you need to be mindful of precisely when they were minted. Anything minted before 1920 is likely to retain that .925 purity, on the upper end of the purity scale, with that added bit of extra historical value. However, high production costs from 1920 onwards saw silver content in coinage decline substantially; by 1945, coins had closer to 50 per cent silver content, with the remainder plugged by manganese and other cheaper metals.
From 1947 onwards, virtually all ‘silver’ coins ended the use of silver in their minting entirely. This means if your coins are of the post-war vintage, it’s unlikely you’re in possession of actual silver coins unfortunately. By 2021, coins with that silvery look may trick you into thinking silver is back in fashion, but actually modern 5p, 20p and 50p coins make use of nickel-plated steel.
Silver coins often come in hauls or caches, passed down through the family, which you might want to sell all in one go. However, unless they date back to 1947 or earlier, they’re less likely to be attracting that 925 purity price. Otherwise, purity is likely to be lower than older variants. In more recent years, silver bullion coins have been minted by specific mints but you need to know what insignia and other signs to look for to know their precise origins.
At Scrap Gold UK, we have a Silver Scrap Calculator which gives you the chance to get a free valuation of items with a purity of at least 50 per cent. All you need is an idea for the item’s purity and its weight in grams. At present, a gram of 925 purity silver can be sold for 44p, lower than what you’d expect when selling a similar amount of gold, emphasising the importance of selling in bulk if you wish to sell small silver items at all.
Need an expert opinion on what your coins could be worth? Scrap Gold UK has received a fair share of coins, so we know what to look for, when it comes to high-purity silver items. Get in touch with us today by calling us on 01902 828 400.
Previous Posts
Sellers Beware: Get Yourself the Best Price for Your Gold
Scrap Gold and the Political Turmoil in Ukraine
Reasons to Sell or Swap your Family Gold in 2022
Gold Offers Reasons for Cheer This Christmas
Christmas 2021 Operating Hours
Recycling Gold for a Low-Carbon Future
What’s in a Silver Coin?
Gold Coins Face Strong Demand at Present
Palladium and Platinum - Alternative Sources of Value
Gold is Becoming a Greener Precious Metal
Archive
April 2022
March 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
July 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
May 2019
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
November 2011
January 2011
November 2010
September 2010
July 2010
June 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009