From The BBC

Germany's central bank is to bring back almost 700 tonnes of gold reserves it keeps in New York and Paris.

By 2020, half of its gold bars will be in its vaults, the Bundesbank said. It currently keeps less than a third at home.

The bars were originally taken out of Germany as a precaution against an invasion from the Soviet Union.

Central banks keep gold abroad so that it can be used to quickly buy foreign currency in times of crisis.

The Bundesbank will no longer keep any of its reserves in Paris, as both countries use the euro.


It will reduce the amount it holds in New York from 45% to 37% by the end of the decade.

No gold will be moved out of the Bank of England's vaults, however. It will still keep 13% of its total reserves in London, the German central bank said.

According to the BBC's Berlin correspondent, Stephen Evans, the German audit office has criticised the government for not keeping a proper track of the bars,

It has even suggested some of the bars may not have been checked to see if they are real, he added.

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Germanys Central bank bringing gold reserves home

The difference between English & Foreign gold hallmarks

As Shakespeare said, “all that glisters (glitters) is not gold.”

And although a jewellery piece or object might look the real deal and press all the right emotional buttons, it can be hard to value properly without some knowledge of hallmarks.

When the item has been manufactured abroad, the job is even harder.

Even if you are familiar with English gold hallmarks, unknown symbols that may be foreign gold hallmarks or something else entirely can make a snap decision in a saleroom almost impossible.

The first thing to remember about gold is that it is a valuable material so wherever the item has been made, it will have marks designed to guarantee that the article is genuine and has undergone purity testing.



The problem is that if the marks are unfamiliar, the gold may not be as good as you think it is, and might not even be gold at all.

The USA and Germany for example do not have a national hallmarking system that is overseen by an independent body as in the UK.

In these countries, goldsmiths stamp their own marks on their gold items themselves and whereas an English gold hallmark is marked that it conforms to all legal standards of purity (fineness).

It will carry between 2 to 5 standard hallmark symbols, a foreign gold hallmark does not always convey the same amount of information.

In Germany, you are only likely to find the manufacturers mark and sometimes a purity mark, usually expressed by a numerical in thousands such as 750 for 18carat although the latter may also be used in some cases.



You may also find a local assay office marked but some markings can be misleading and have simply been put on the piece as an extra flourish or because they resemble a genuine hallmark from elsewhere.

The same is true of American marks.

Foreign gold hallmarks will not adhere to one set of rulings.

As with English gold hallmarks they can vary, and without expert knowledge, be hard to decipher.

Are there any really obvious ways of telling quickly if gold metal is English or foreign?

The easiest way is to look at the hallmark and if it does not include a familiar set of English gold hallmarks such as the assay office, makers mark and purity symbol, then it probably is foreign.

This is not all bad news because you may be able to find a purity symbol somewhere on your item.

Many foreign gold hallmarks will show you the gold content of the piece, but you need to be familiar with the gold percentage figures because a number itself may be misleading.

If the number refers to silver or another, metal your item will be worth much less than the solid gold it may appear to be.

 

 

Identify marks on foreign silver part 1

 

 

 

 

A Guide to Foreign Silver part 2

 

 

 

How to Understand International hallmarks

 

 

 

 

Where to sell your gold?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The difference between English and Foreign gold hallmarks

How to hunt for buried armchair treasure

Ever since the best selling treasure hunt book Masquerade fuelled a craze for treasure hunting in the 80s, the concept of the armchair treasure hunt has been going from strength to strength.

Armchair treasure hunting simply means that you solve a puzzle by clues rather than random digging.

The treasure hunt clues come in a variety of formats; pamphlets, an illustration, websites that offer clues, illustrated books, text message clues and more.

In some cases your written or emailed answer is enough to win the prize, provided you solve the puzzle and provide the correct grid reference and solution.

In some cases the buried treasure or the title deeds to the piece is physically in the location so you can just go and dig it up!








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Previous treasure hunts have included some valuable prizes.

In Dennis - A Treasure Hunt Adventure in illustrated book and website format, the prize was a 24ct gold figurine worth in excess of £10,000 found in 2006 a year after the book was released.

In 2005 Lucky 7 was a treasure hunt based on a simple illustration was solved within a month, netting the winner a Kruger rand worth £3000

Quest: A Zetetic Treasure Hunt was released in 1992 and not solved until 2006 and had a golden chest worth £30,000.

There are some high value treasure hunts still running and new treasure hunts are being released all the time.

One high value treasure hunt that is currently running is Dragonigma.

The prize is an18-carat gold dragon enriched with five diamonds and four rubies which measures 133mm x 105mm.

To join in on the hunt you have to register with The Treasure Hunt Club and pay a £5.00 fee to view the clues that are in playing card format.

In this treasure hunt, you locate the deeds to the piece (so metal detectors are no use) which is stored with the Yorkshire bank.

There is a lot of treasure out there that may be yours for the taking if you can solve the clues.

The best way to search for a treasure hunt is to look online and join a treasure hunting club. The Armchair Treasure hunt Club or the Treasure hunt Club are good places to start.

Is my Gold Gucci Watch a fake?

Is my Gold Gucci watch a fake?
The House of Gucci is an Italian fashion label established in 1921 by Guccio Gucci in Florence. Upmarket, select and ultra chic, the quality and style of Gucci is known the world over. As well as fashion and leather goods, most notably handbags, Gucci have produced a selection of watches since 1997.

Gucci watches come in three types; bracelet watches, automatic watches and quartz watches. They may be made from yellow gold, white gold or stainless steel and sometime incorporate other materials including diamonds and leather. The gold watches are gold plated with 18-carat gold on stainless steel.

A quick scan on line will show that you can buy cheap “Gucci “replica watches many originating from China and Hong Kong. In many cases, these are quite openly replicas so that you can get the look of Gucci without spending a fortune.

However if you wish to buy a genuine new Gucci watch, they are only available direct from Gucci, their on line store, authorized boutiques or select department stores. Before you start looking, you should check out the Gucci website to see designs, current styles and prices. A gold plated Gucci watch will cost around £600 but prices vary according to design and model.

New Gucci watches are not available anywhere else for rock bottom prices because Gucci are very selective with their retailers.

The danger point is in the second hand market and here you need to be careful.
So how can you tell the difference between a genuine gold Gucci watch and a fake? After all a fake Gucci gold watch is really only a fake if it is passed off as the real thing – especially on auction sites such as eBay

Genuine Gucci watches are only made in Switzerland so if your watch is engraved“Made in Italy” it is certainly a fake. The watches are the only Gucci items not produced in Italy a fact that many counterfeiters do not realise.

Gucci watches always have a crest logo engraved on the back of the watch face. However, the insignias and logos located on the back of authentic Gucci watches vary with each season and watch design.

Each genuine Gucci watch has a model number and serial number stamped on the back. The numbers are not available to check on line but you can try taking it to a reputable jewellers to check.

All new Gucci watches are sold with a box and certificate. Can you really imagine anyone throwing this away or losing it when it comes to selling?

Gucci have only been making watches since 1997 so if you are offered an antique Gucci watch it will not be genuine.

Most fake Guccis use cheaper materials and are lighter in weight than the genuine article.

A very important point to remember is that just because Gucci is a well-known make, the price of their watches may not be as much as you think. Certainly on eBay it is not uncommon to see second hand (or dubious) Gucci watches going for more than the recommended retail price

Is my gold rolex a fake?

Identify Gold and silver hallmarks

Where to sell your gold?

Where can I sell my gold?

There are three main ways to sell your scrap gold. The first is to pop down to your high street jewellers and allow them to make you an offer. The alternative is to find a reputable postal gold website who will give you a quote and then you just send your old treasure off in a padded envelope and wait for the cheque.

A less common but increasingly popular method of selling your old gold is to attend a gold party where friends get together with a gold dealer to sell their unwanted jewellery – in the same spirit as a Tupperware, Jamie Oliver or Anne Summers party. Don’t do it. It might be a fun evening out but you will lose money!

If you are wary of finding an online gold dealer, the local jewellers may be your first port of call but whichever option you choose it is important to look like you know what you are doing.

You need to have an idea of the value of your gold before you agree to sell so do some research and prepare beforehand.

Use a hallmark guide to identify your gold, and note the carat value of each piece.

Gold bought overseas will also be valuable despite the absence of a British hallmark but you will still probably find a number relating to the gold content.

A jeweller should be able to recognise the country of origin by the marks. Keep an eye out for our next blogs which identify foreign gold hallmarks.

You also need to weigh it accurately so you know exactly what you have. Buy or borrow some accurate scales (1/100gm accurate) and weigh your gold so that there are no later “misunderstandings” about the weight.

Remember - gold weighing less than a gram will not be hallmarked but may still be gold, so don’t discount small pieces such as butterflies for earrings or odd chain links. It all adds up.

You can check online for the price of gold. It varies daily but it will give you a ballpark figure to work with. Once you know the price, don’t be afraid to haggle with the jeweller. It is a deal like anything else.

They want to pay a low price, you want a high one. You may need to get a few quotes to get the best price so don’t feel intimidated by their manner or knowledge.

If you are going to send your gold to a postal site, try to research the most reliable gold dealer. This trade is notorious for rip offs so you do need to be careful.

Always document your gold, weight it and photograph it before sending and post by recorded delivery. In the case of the parcel being lost in the post you will be able to make a claim.

The gold dealer should send you a quote beforehand based on your weight and carat value – the exact sum will vary depending on the day they receive the gold because the gold market fluctuates.

Include a copy of their email quote in with your package. They will ask you how you want to be paid so after sale is agreed and the company email you the exact price expect payment by BACs or PayPal depending on your preferences.

Some of the postal gold sites pay slightly higher prices than the high street but you need to check out the company before you go with them. Chat rooms, feedback etc are all good ways of deciding.

All this only applies to selling scrap gold so if you are considering cashing in your antique gold jewellery finding a specialist jewellers or antique dealer may be a better option.

Also you might like where to sell scrap gold ?

Montezuma’s gold – the missing Aztec treasure hoard.

Montezuma’s gold is believed to be a lost hoard of gold that the Aztecs buried in the 1500s in order to stop it falling into the Spanish conquistadors hands. It is fabled to be the biggest missing hoard in the world.

Hernan Cortez had arrived in Tenochtitlan in what is now Mexico, on November 8, 1519 and quickly set to killing everyone and destroying the city. The story is that the Aztecs hid their gold, Emperor Montezuma was taken prisoner by Cortez and killed and presumably, the location of the gold died with him.

However, in 1914, a man named Freddie Crystal arrived in Kanab a small town in Utah, with a map, he said he had found in a Spanish monastery and which he believed to be a treasure map to Montezuma’s gold.

The map featured distinctive geographic points, mountains, a cliff with stairs, a canyon, petroglyphs in the shape of ducks, mysterious Aztec symbols and more. Freddie Crystal and his entourage spent eight years searching the local area for the location with no luck at all despite digging exploratory mine shafts and holes all over the area. Most local people were sceptical.





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When Crystal and his entourage entered Johnson’s Canyon a small canyon located north of Kanab by White Mountain, the clues of the original treasure map began to make sense. They found the duck symbols and the cliff with stairs and the geographic clues all began to add up.

The treasure hunters set to work immediately but after two days hit a huge man made wall built from blue limestone. Once word of this got out in Kanab, the townspeople changed their attitude.

Kanab was gripped with treasure fever and the townspeople flocked to the site, setting up a camp at White Mountain. Crystal agreed to cut them all in for a percentage of the treasure when they found it, in return for work. After days of back breaking labour, they managed to break through the wall and entered a 160ft long tunnel, which led into a huge chamber under the mountain. It was empty.

Undeterred the treasure hunters discovered other blocked up tunnels and dug these out. They found a skeleton in another chamber and small artefacts but if there had ever been treasure, it was gone.

After two years and no treasure, the people of Kanab lost heart again and went back to their every day lives and Freddie Crystal just seemed to disappear without trace. Nobody knows what happened to him.

However, the story did not end there. A local Kanab man named Brandt Child, who had been involved with the treasure hunt as a young boy, had always believed in the idea of Crystal’s story and never gave up searching for the treasure.



In 1989 he was exploring Three Lakes Canyon area, about 10 miles away from White Mountain when he recognised what he thought was an Aztec sign carved into a sandstone cliff.

He decided to buy up all the land in the area including three lakes, one of which locals believed was haunted and bottomless but which turned out to be 35 ft deep.

Child had researched the Aztec's and believed that the treasure was likely buried in water. When interviewed in 1998 he explained that the Aztec's would dig a tunnel to a treasure hoard and then flood the entrance by damming a stream and creating a lake, drowning everyone involved in the work.

He estimated that there might be as much as 45,000 pounds of gold and approximately the remains of 8000 Aztec soldiers.

Brandt Child contracted a team of divers and began investigations. Apparently, weird and spooky things started happening. The dives were plagued with bad luck and inexplicable equipment failure and all the divers reported a choking sensation,  a strong sense of dread and of eerie figures surrounding them.

None of the divers were ever prepared to dive the lake again and each one reported the same terrifying experiences.

In another twist it turned out that the lake was the home of a very rare and protected species snail called the Oxyloma haydeni kanabensis - or the Kanab ambersnail.

Brandt Child was prevented from the disturbing the environment and the US Fish and Wildlife Service fenced off the lake.

Brandt Child was killed in mysterious circumstances in 2001 when his car hit a horse, which reputedly appeared from nowhere and some people believe there is a curse on the site and the treasure. Locals firmly believe that the area is haunted and that the horse that killed Brandt was some sort of ghostly apparition.

It is possible that Montezuma’s treasure is still down there somewhere and protected by the ghosts of the 8000 drowned Aztec warriors,  the US Fish and Wildlife Service and 10,000 endangered thumbnail sized snails.

What are Pieces of eight

The truth about the lost Nazi Gold Conspiracy

The weird true story of the golden hare treasure

Bending the Silver Spoon of Uri Geller

What are Pieces of eight

Pieces of Eight – the Spanish Silver Dollar -The First Global Currency

Pieces of Eight or Spanish Silver dollars were originally part of Spanish currency. However, this monetary unit was spread rapidly around the world because of the huge Spanish empire first established in the 15th century and because of the wealth of South American silver mines that made Spain so rich.

By the mid 1500s, the piece of eight was also being called the Spanish silver dollar because it compared in value to the German silver coin, the Thaler.
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Spain’s currency unit was based on coinage called the Real, which had been introduced in Spain in the 1300s. The famous piece of eight or peso de ocho was worth eight Reales and had an 8 stamped on the reverse of the coin.

Once the Spanish had discovered the valuable metal deposits of South America, they started to mint their coins in the New World. The silver was mined in the Spanish South American Empire in Mexico Lima and Bolivia.

Much of the silver used for the silver dollar, was extracted from the silver mountain of Potosi in Bolivia using thousands of Native American Indians and African slave labour in appalling conditions. You can identify coinage made in South America rather than Spain because it carries an image of the Pillars of Hercules.



The Spanish silver dollar was the most valuable of the silver coins and weighed about 1 oz. In 1566, the more valuable gold escudo was introduced, worth 16 Reales. The gold escudo was often called a doubloon – a slang word for any coin meaning double the value of another. 

Spanish Silver dollars can be seen as the World’s first Global currency. They were used in Spain and the far-flung reaches of the Spanish Empire and were accepted everywhere else as well. They were seen by most people as being most stable currency in the world because there were simply so many of them and because this currency was the one most used for trade.

Millions of dollars were minted over the centuries and they were the most widely used coinage of the American colonial period.

The golden age of piracy – between the 1650s to the 1730s did much spread this Spanish currency around and early trade in America was often carried out using silver dollars gained in illicit trading in the West Indies and because of a lack of British coinage.

When the Americans started minting their own coinage in 1792, the Spanish dollars remained more popular because of their higher silver content. They were still in use in America late into the 19th century where their value was equal to that of a US dollar.

Gold Silver and Platinum record awards for music sales

Getting a gold or platinum award for selling your music is something that all musicians dream of, but how many discs or downloads do you have to sell in order to qualify?

The answer is that it all depends on where you live. In some countries it can be as little as 3000!

Originally, gold records were very special and were produced by record companies to reward their high selling artists.

The first ever-gold record was awarded to Glenn Miller in 1942 by RCA to celebrate selling over a million copies of Chattanooga Choo Choo.

Elvis Presley’s single “Don’t be cruel” also hit gold in 1956 with over a million sold and Harry Belafonte has the distinction of receiving the first gold record for the best selling album Calypso.

In 1958, The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) launched a standardised awards programme for the music industry.

They set the USA figures at 500,000 sales for Gold status, One million sales for Platinum, plus Multi platinum status (for every extra million sold) and Diamond awards in 1999 which applies to sales of albums or singles over 10 million. These figures only apply within the USA.

In the UK, figures are based on retail sales, compiled by The Official Charts Company.

In Britain you will receive a Gold award for selling 400,000 singles in any format including digital downloads, or 100,000 album sales.

Platinum status is set at 300,000 sales and Multi platinum is calculated at every extra 300,000 units sold.

The UK chart also includes Silver status set at 200,000 singles or 60,000 albums.

In Slovakia, Peru and Ecuador, you can expect a gold disc for selling just 3,000 albums whilst in Uruguay just 2000 record or digital sales.

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So what are the best Worldwide sellers of all time?

Thriller by Michael Jackson tops the list with over 56 million copies sold worldwide.
Next comes the 1973 Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon at around 50 million.

In the UK, Adele is currently the UK's best selling artist and has been awarded for her album 21 and has just overtaken Dark Side of the Moon in the Album charts.

However, she still has a long way to go before she catches up with Queen!

The UK Top Ten Albums

1.   Greatest Hits Queen Released 1981 5.900,000 sold

2.   Sgt Peppers Lonely Heart’s Club Band Beatles 1967 5,100 000 sold

3.   Gold Greatest Hits. Abba released 1992 just under 5 million sold

4.    (What’s the Story) Morning Glory Oasis 1995 4,600, 000 sold

5.   Thriller Michael Jackson released 1982, 4, 300,000 sold

6.   Brothers in Arms Dire Straits 1985 4,154 000 sold

7.   21 Adele released in 2011 4,142,000 sold

8.   Dark Side of the moon by Pink Floyd released 1973 4.116 000 sold

9.   Bad Michael Jackson released 1987 3,960 000 sold

10. Greatest Hits 2 Queen released in 1991 3, 888,000 sold.

The truth about the lost Nazi Gold Conspiricy

During the years running up to WW2 and throughout the years of the war, the Nazis amassed vast wealth and art treasure looted throughout Europe.

It has been estimated that they stole approximately $550m in gold from Belgium banks and $193 from the financial institutions of the Netherlands alone.

This is in addition to the gold and artworks stolen from private citizens and companies. To this day, the whereabouts of a lot of the Nazi loot and the total value of assets stolen by Nazi Germany remains unknown.

There are numerous conspiracy theories about the missing bank vault gold. The Swiss National Bank allegedly was used to store most of it and some people have claimed that it was subsequently transferred to the Vatican - unsurprisingly they have always denied this.

The Nazi War machine spent some of it in Portugal because the German armaments industry was dependant on tungsten - a vital metal produced in Portugal.

Because the Portuguese were, neutral they could trade with both sides but when the Germans started passing counterfeit cash, in 1941 Portuguese leader Antonio de Oliveiera demanded all further payments in gold. This probably accounted for some of it.

Although this is interesting, large financial establishments are impossible to penetrate and it seems likely that the truth will never be known. However, some smaller hoards remain un found and intrigue treasure hunters some 70 years on.



Stolpsee Lake is situated about an hour’s drive north of Berlin in the former East Germany and is the site of a well known treasure hoard. In 1945, Herman Goering emptied his home of loot and art works before ordering it to be dynamited because the Red army were advancing.

Goering is alleged to have personally taken charge of numerous amounts of bullion from the national bank of Poland following the Nazi invasion in 1939 and apparently ordered 18 boxes of gold to be thrown in nearby Stolpsee lake - only a few miles from his home.

Although The Polish prisoners who followed the order were subsequently shot some local people did witness the dumping of the boxes.

In 1986, before German reunification the Stasi ordered a trawl of the lake but found nothing. Last year a group of German businessmen started searching the lake. So far, if they have found anything, they are keeping quiet about it.

Treasure hunters also believe that Lake Toplitz, 60 miles from Salzburg in Austria may contain millions of pounds in bullion and treasure. Nazi scientists used it as a test site for explosives so may have been a good hiding place for Nazi loot.

The Austrian Alps are also believed to house lost Nazi treasure following the discovery of a network of tunnels built to store supplies and materials and provide a safe place for a last ditch stand.

One of the oddest Nazi gold stories is the tale of a U-boat crew who supposedly buried a fortune in gold bullion on Auckland Island, which lies approximately 200 miles south of the coast of New Zealand.

The tiny Auckland Island has been so carefully picked over by treasure hunters, if there was anything there; it is certainly not there now.

Triplet Jewellers Loup 30x - £6.99 magnify your advantage

If you are searching for a present for the collector in your life, the Triplet Jewellers Loup is an ideal gift or stocking filler for anyone.

The pocket size fold away lens is an essential tool that has many uses. 

It is ideal for reading hallmarks or tiny markings, perfect for showing details not readily visible to the naked eye, and great for using on gold, silver, jewellery, ceramics, watches, stamps, glass or anything that someone may collect where careful examination is crucial.

The powerful lens magnifies x 30 so that even the tiniest marks will be clearly visible. 

The triple lens system ensures that there is no distortion in magnification making the tiniest objects or marks crystal clear and easy to see.

The triplet jeweller’s loupe can be packed away in its own stainless steel case and is so compact it can be kept in the pocket at all times or added to a key ring or neck chain. 

An ideal gift for the collector or antiques enthusiast – the professional triplet jeweller’s loupe is hard wearing and should last a lifetime.

For gold and silver collectors why not take advantage of the complete gold and silver buyer’s kit. 


The professional jeweller’s loupe combined with the downloadable guide to British hallmarks suitable for your e reader, android or mobile phone.




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 Gold and silver hallmarks main site

The Golden Secrets of the Pharaohs

In the Ancient Egyptian world, gold was believed to have magical powers and shine like the most important deity of the times,  
the Sun God Ra. 

He was believed to carry the sun on his head and gold was part of his flesh.

The Ancient Egyptians had the richest gold deposits in the known world which were located in the Nubian region or South Eastern desert. 

They extracted gold by crushing quartz rock or panning for it in the rivers.  Because of its sacred quality, all gold belonged to the Pharaohs and priests who used it for religious purposes to celebrate Ra.

Gold for the After Life

Craftsmen made the fine gold artefacts used to adorn palaces, temples and tombs as well as the jewellery worn by important and holy people of both sexes. 

Jewellery was usually buried with their owners. This belief in the afterlife and the wealth of grave goods found in tombs led to most graves being plundered in the intervening thousands of years.

The Gold of King Tutankhamen

The most famous collection of gold was found in the tomb of King Tutankhamen. Although he was only a boy king and relatively unimportant at the time, today he is the only Egyptian Pharaoh who most people can name.

It seems that following his death he was soon forgotten which may explain why his tomb had remained undisturbed and relatively intact. 

When it was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter and George Herbert the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, the discovery shook the world. 

The sarcophagus was covered in gold leaf and within that were three gold coffins nested together like Russian dolls. 

The final coffin, made of solid gold contained the mummified body of King Tut wearing the iconic solid gold death mask inlaid with jewels. 

His gold jewellery was also placed in the coffin and included amulets, bracelets and head jewellery, priceless beyond compare.

It led to a craze for all things Egyptian in the 1920s that has continued to the present day.

The Curse of the Mummy

Following discovery of the tomb, there were  rumours of an evil ancient curse being placed upon the heads of the discoverers of the tomb.   

Lord Carnarvon, the financial backer of the expedition died a year after the discovery of the tomb in Cairo from blood poisoning after shaving an infected mosquito bite.

However, Howard Carter lived safely for another 16 years before dying on natural causes in London.

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 Gold and silver hallmarks main site

What does every cloud has a silver lining really mean?

Every cloud has a silver lining

This well-known phrase means that even a bad situation can have a good side.

It is usually said to someone to cheer them up in a bad situation and to offer encouragement to think positively.

Oh, you have broken all your plates – at least you won’t have to wash up later!

So why do we say it and where does it come from? After all clouds do not really have silver linings and are more likely to drop rain than shower good luck on those below.
 
The first time in literature that this phrase appears is in a 1634 poem by John Milton – Comus - A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle, and is more descriptive than proverbial.

Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night?
I did not err; there does a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night,
And casts a gleam over this tufted grove.

Literary references of the time talked about clouds and silver linings and even sometimes referred to them as Milton’s clouds.

However, in the Victorian Age, this poetic and descriptive device was turned into a proverb that became popular. The Victorian expression was "There's a silver lining to every cloud” or even the more lengthy "There's a silver lining to every cloud that sails about the heavens if we could only see it."

Over time this has changed to the more familiar “every cloud has a silver lining” 

It is a lovely idea that most bad situations often have something good that can be salvaged from them and making the best of things is generally a good trait.

But be warned – too much looking on the bright side in your friend’s hour of need can become extremely irritating. If your friend’s silver lining turns out to be telling you to butt out, your unrelenting optimism may have backfired.




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 Gold and silver hallmarks main site

What is a Carat?

The quality of gold is measured in carats. As everybody knows, the higher the carat the better the quality of the gold but how do you measure it and what does it mean?

The word carat comes from the Arabic word qirat and means seed pod or husk, traditionally used to weigh small quantities.

The Greeks used the same measure and found it was the equivalent of a Roman measurement, the siliqua. This was one 24th of a gold Roman coin – the solidus of Constantine.

Today for gold measurement, this idea of the 24 units lives on.
However the amount of carats contained in gold  does not relate to the weight of the gold, just the purity.

By contrast, diamonds and precious gemstones also measured in carats, refer to weight. A gemstone carat weighs 0.2mg.

Gold is a very soft metal and used alone it is far too soft for many applications such as jewellery, as well as being expensive.

For these reasons it is usually mixed with another metal such as silver, copper or nickel to increase the hardness.


 The content of the gold is measured in units of 24ths or carats, sometimes spelt karats.

If a piece of jewellery is 18 carat gold this means that it is 18 parts gold and the remaining 6 units are made up of another metal. For nine-carat gold, the majority of the metal is base metal with only 9/24 of gold. This equals 37.5% gold or 375 parts per 1000. The weight of the gold does not affect the carat value.

Fine Gold
The purest gold available is 24 carat gold, also called fine gold. This means that out of the 24 units of gold, the full 24 are gold. To be more precise,  .9995 parts per 1000  or 99.95% is gold.

If this is converted to carats, it would be 23.988 carats or more likely 99.9% because of the residual impurities found in the metal.

The Royal Canadian Mint produce a .99999 fine gold coin which is advertised as the world's purest gold coin. Gold bars and ingots are classed as fine gold if they are over .995 which is 23.88 carats.





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 Gold and silver hallmarks main site

What is Black Friday

Black Friday is an important day in the US shopping calendar.

It marks the start of the Christmas shopping season and takes place the day after Thanksgiving in November.

For those not familiar with US traditions, Thanksgiving takes place on the fourth Thursday in November and traces its origins back to a 1621 celebration held in Plymouth Massachusetts by the early settlers to give thanks to God.

Today Thanksgiving is a family celebration and legal state holiday that marks the start of a long weekend off for most people. And after the family turkey feast on Thursday, the following day is available for people to go Christmas shopping on what has become the busiest shopping day of the year.

Because Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday in November, Black Friday occurs somewhere between the 23rd and the 29th of November.

Black Friday is so called because it marks the day when retailers make a profit - that is get out of the red and into the black. There is also a sense for shop workers that it is black because it can be such a long hard working day, as well as the mad crowds and general congestion of the streets and shopping malls.
 
Crucially important, Black Friday shopping performance can set the trend for either profit or loss. It is watched carefully by retailers and economic commentators alike because it is widely believed to set the economic tone for the year to come.



To give customers greater incentive to spend, most shops offer Black Friday sales and there are some fantastic cut-price bargains to be had.

In recent years, shop doors have been opening ever more early in order to be the first with the sales. Some retailers open at midnight of Thanksgiving and recently even at 10pm on the night of Thanksgiving itself in the race to be first.

This move that has not been welcome by some consumer groups and retail staff.

Despite the economic downturn, or possibly because of it - many shoppers are taking more and more desperate measures in order to nail a bargain.

The idea of Black Friday has now made its way out of the US as on line retailers such as Apple and Amazon offer on line sales.





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Were You born with a Silver Spoon in Your Mouth?

“It’s alright for him. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth,”

As you may know, this well-known phrase describes someone who has been born into wealth and has never had to go without.

David Cameron the current British PM and most of his cabinet qualify for this description as do a lot of politicians on both sides of the House of Commons.

However, the phrase itself may have origins in sound common sense. Silver is actually very good for babies when they are teething because a cold smooth silver implement, such as a spoon will sooth the gums and also kill bacteria in the mouth.

In bygone ages when infant mortality was high, sucking on silver would have undoubtedly helped babies fight off infection.

Today doctors are finding that silver has a number of medicinal uses.

Silver can be used to treat infection and kill bacteria. Wound dressings containing silver are being used more commonly these days because so many people have become resistant to antibiotics and are suffering from antibiotic resistant infections, such as MRSA.

Silver kills infection without introducing extra drugs into the patients’ system.

Silver has disinfectant properties so is an ideal material for reconstructive orthopaedic surgery, bone prostheses and cardiac devices.

There is a branch of New Age treatment that advocates using colloidal silver for just about everything, from head colds to cancer.



Colloidal silver is a liquid suspension of silver particles that is often taken orally. However, medical advice is that it should be avoided because there is no real proof of any positive benefits plus the risks of adverse side effects from Argyria.

Agyria or silver poisoning, is a condition caused by over exposure to chemical forms of silver, silver dust or sliver particles and an interesting side effect is that it turns the skin blue.

A Californian man who drank large quantities of colloidal silver per week for years in an attempt to cure his acid reflux problems, made the world news in 2007 after his entire skin turned bright blue.





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First New Gold Mine opens in Scotland for 500 years

First commercial gold mine is to be opened in Scotland after 500 Years!

The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park is an area of outstanding natural beauty so it has come as a surprise to some, that the plans to develop a multi million-pound gold mine has gone ahead.

This has not been a smooth ride for the Australian mining company Scotgold Resources who had planning refused first time round in 2010 over conservation concerns. Economically it makes sense.

Scotsgold estimate that they should be able to extract £200 million of gold and silver from the mine over the next 10 years. which is to be constructed at Cononish in the heart of the National Park.

Once the mine is in operation it is expected that the rarity value of Scottish Gold will attract premium prices in an already over inflated market.

Scotgold Resources are expecting to extract around 20,000 ounces of gold and 80,000 ounces of silver each year and are delighted with the decision to go ahead.



This will be the first time in 500 years that Scottish gold will be mined commercially but it has become a viable proposition now because of the record high prices of gold.

The Cononish Gold mine is expected to create jobs for around 50 local people and have promised to restore the landscape back to its natural condition following the 10-year lease.

The National Trust who granted permission in October 2011 weighed up both sides of the argument and decided that the temporary loss to the special character of Glen Cononish would be offset by the long time conversation benefits and much needed economic boost to the local area and Scotland.

A legally binding agreement ensures that once the mine reaches the end of its 10-year tenure and the landscape is restored, the landscape will actually be improved from its current state.

The news of the gold mine has not been received by everyone quite so positively. Mountaineers are concerned that the workings will undermine the approach to Ben Lui and ruin the view for over 10,000 people who walk and climb the mountain, and the RSPB and Scottish National Heritage have also opposed the decision.

As one objector said,  
“I thought the point of creating the national park was to protect the area against the sort of development that destroyed the areas outstanding natural beauty!”



























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