Forms of Use

Broken gold refers to damaged, deformed or incomplete gold items that no longer serve as jewellery or usable objects 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 bourgeois and aristocratic households in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Dental gold is the gold alloy from 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 on 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 – especially in the electronics industry – rather than 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 make jewellery, indicated by their fineness in carats or in parts per thousand.

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

Silver used as a conductive paste in solar cells to conduct away current, today representing the single largest industrial use of the metal.

Scrap gold refers to used or damaged gold items - 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 reprocessed as a raw material.

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

Solid silver cutlery is made entirely of a silver alloy, whereas plated cutlery carries only a thin silver layer 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.