Forms of Use

Broken gold denotes damaged, deformed, or incomplete gold items that no longer serve as jewellery or a functional object and are primarily destined for the melting process.

Cutlery silver refers to solid silver cutlery with a fineness of at least 800 per mille (80%), which was especially widespread in middle-class and aristocratic households during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Dental gold is the gold alloy found in dental restorations such as crowns and bridges — usually with a fineness between 750 and 900, often with valuable additions of platinum and palladium.

Dental gold refers to precious-metal-bearing dental alloys used in dentistry for crowns, bridges and inlays, which upon recycling yield valuable precious metals such as gold, platinum and palladium.

Gold hammered or rolled into wafer-thin sheets, used in gilding, arts and crafts and food processing.

Industrial gold refers to gold used in technical applications - particularly in the electronics industry - and not for investment or jewellery.

Industrial silver refers to silver used as a raw material in technical and industrial applications, as opposed to investment or jewellery silver.

Jewellery gold refers to gold alloys used to manufacture jewellery, whose fineness is stated in carats or thousandths depending on the gold content.

Medals are struck or cast metal discs with no legal tender status, made from precious metals as commemorative, award or collector pieces.

Silver used as a conductive paste in solar cells to conduct current away, today the single largest industrial consumption item for the metal.

Scrap gold refers to used or damaged gold objects – jewellery, dental gold, coins and industrial residues – that are melted down and refined to recover the fine gold content they contain.

Scrap silver refers to used silver from jewellery, cutlery, coins or industrial products that is melted down or further processed as a raw material.

Silver coins as circulation money were state-minted means of payment made from silver alloys that dominated everyday money circulation for centuries, until rising silver prices forced their withdrawal and replacement with coins made from base metals.

Solid silver cutlery is made entirely of a silver alloy, whereas silver-plated cutlery carries only a thin layer of silver on a base-metal core.

Wristwatches and pocket watches whose case, bracelet or dial is made wholly or partly of gold, silver, platinum or palladium.