I am getting ready to send my first refining order in to Hoover &
Strong but have a few questions. I am mainly sending in commercially
made beads- some sterling and some what is sold as “Thai silver”. The
latter is purported to be a higher silver content than sterling. ( I
have been told anywhere from 95% to 98%.) (I bought the beads a long
time ago and don’t want to deal with selling them.)
I have approximately 150 troy oz. of each type. I am wondering if it
is worthwhile for me to have the Thai silver assayed - and pay an
assay fee- or just have it considered sterling and reimbursed at 70%
of the silver market.
I also wanted to ask about gold plated sterling items. Again- these
are commercially purchased beads. (I am getting out of the beading
business and committing myself to fabricating.) From what I
understand, unless I have very large quantities, it may be best to
run these with the sterling. I hate to let that gold “go”, but I
really don’t know what the gold content truly is.
Does anyone have advice on these 2 matters?
Thank you for dealing with such elementary questions - Sarah