14ct gold price per gram in the UK

A UK hallmark struck by an assay office carries the fineness number, a sponsor's mark identifying the maker, and often a date letter and a town mark. 14ct reads 585.

This is a genuine assay rather than a manufacturer's claim, which is why British hallmarked items are straightforward to sell. A date letter can also mean the piece is worth more than its metal, so look it up before scrapping anything old.

Four assay offices operate in the UK and each has its own symbol: a leopard's head for London, an anchor for Birmingham, a rose for Sheffield and a castle for Edinburgh. Glasgow, marked with a tree and fish, closed in 1964, so a Glasgow mark dates a piece before then on its own.

The date letter is a single character whose font and shield shape change by cycle, and every assay office runs its own sequence. Tables are published online by the assay offices themselves. Two minutes with one of those tables can turn a piece you were about to weigh in as scrap into something worth listing as antique instead.

9ct, stamped 375, is by far the most common gold in the UK and is only 37.5% pure. If you have inherited jewellery and assumed it was 14ct, check: the value difference is substantial, at roughly 55% more for 14ct of the same weight.

The UK is unusual in permitting 9ct to be sold as gold at all. Most of continental Europe sets the floor higher, and the United States will not go below 10k. It is a British convention rather than an international one, and it is why so much inherited jewellery here is worth less per gram than people expect.

Selling second hand personal jewellery does not normally create a VAT liability. Capital gains tax is the one to understand, and there are two exemptions that matter.

Gold sovereigns and Britannias are UK legal tender, and gains on legal tender coins are exempt from capital gains tax entirely regardless of size. That makes them a materially different proposition from bullion bars for anyone holding a substantial amount.

For jewellery, the chattels rules apply. Items of tangible movable property disposed of below the chattel exemption threshold produce no chargeable gain, which covers most ordinary jewellery sales outright. Sets and collections can be treated as a single item, so breaking a set up to stay under the limit does not work as a strategy. If the amounts are meaningful, take advice rather than guessing.

Hatton Garden in London remains the densest concentration of buyers in the country and the easiest place to get several quotes in one afternoon. Outside London, the choice is high street jewellers, pawnbrokers and postal buyers.

Postal buyers often advertise the best headline rate. Use a tracked, insured service, photograph every piece with its weight beforehand, and confirm the return policy before posting. Any reputable operator will send an offer you are free to decline with your gold returned.