Can platinum be reused??????

[kelliedana]

I have a ring that I had made to go with another ring. When I gave my ring to get a wax mold, it came back messed up. I requested another ring, which they gave me but did not fix the one I had made to match the new one. I want to redo the ring, but I was told by a jeweler that you cannot reuse platinum. Is that true?????

 

[denverappraiser]

Most jewelers have a recycle system in place in the shop for exactly the reasons that Steve outlines. When precious metal is contaminated, or even suspected of being contaminated it goes into a refining bucket along with the sweepings from the floor, the vacuum cleaner bags and everything else that has recoverable metal. Every now and then they will ship the lot to a refinery to separate the components and they will get back gold, silver and platinum in whatever form the jeweler wants.

The result of this is that the jeweler should be able to give you some sort of a metal credit against the old ring and sell you entirely new metal with which they can do their best work. There are some fees from the refinery for this but they are usualy pretty reasonable. In most cases, the bulk of the price of your ring is in the labor, not the materials, and its good to give the craftspeople every opportunity to do their very best work. Saving $100 in refining fees is usually not the best plan.

Neil Beaty
GG(GIA) ISA NAJA
Independent Appraisals in Denver