Iranian Jewelry

Iranian jewelry in Germany. What you need to know about buying gold, the weight, the karat, what belongs on the invoice, what that tiny stamp on the piece is actually worth and what to settle about buy-back, is on the clothing and jewelry page and is not repeated here. This page is about the other half of the trade: what a jeweller does to gold you already own.

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This list is short

Plainly said: the list on this page is short, and the nearest business is unlikely to be in your own town. The cities it reaches are at the bottom of the page, Hamburg, Berlin and Düsseldorf, so start there and assume a journey. And because most of what this page describes means leaving a piece behind and coming back for it, count the journey twice. Before you set off, ask whether the work is done on the premises or sent out, how long it takes, and whether the piece can come back by insured post instead of a second trip.

Old gold turned into something wearable

The thing a family most often wants from a jeweller is not a new purchase. It is for what has sat at the back of a drawer for years to become something somebody will actually wear: the set nobody fastens any more, the broken chain, the ring from a grandmother that fits nobody. Ordinary work, done well every day, but it carries questions that have to be asked at the first appointment, because afterwards there is nothing left to ask about.

First, melted or reworked? Reworking means the piece survives and changes: resized, the stone reset, a brooch turned into a pendant, a single surviving earring made into something that can be worn. Melting means the piece no longer exists. If what matters to you is the object rather than the metal in it, ask first whether there is a route that makes it wearable without melting.

Second, whose gold ends up in the new piece? In many workshops your old gold does not physically go into the new item at all. It is weighed, valued, credited to you, and the new piece is made from the workshop's own stock alloy. That is not a trick and not wrong, there are technical reasons for it. But if you are picturing your mother's gold inside the new ring, only a direct question settles it, and the answer varies by workshop.

Third, what comes off? Old gold is not counted at its full weight. Old solder joints and mixed karats pull the purity down, melting and refining carry a cost and a loss, and stones, clasps and anything that is not gold are set aside. Ask for the figures written separately: the weight as you hand it over, the karat they are working to, what is deducted for loss and refining, and the charge for the new work. One lump sum tells you nothing afterwards.

Fourth, weigh it and photograph it before you hand it over, and take a receipt naming the weight, the karat, a description and the number of stones. This is not distrust. Once the piece has left your hands, that sheet is the only record of what it was.

Fifth, where is the point of no return? Ask what you get back if you change your mind halfway, and which stage changes that answer. Design and model work is usually treated as work done and charged whether or not the piece is ever made, and after melting the old piece does not come back at any price. Old stones can often be reset, but not always: older cuts do not sit in modern settings, and taking a stone out sometimes breaks it. Ask them to name that risk before starting, and to write down who carries it.

Repairs, resizing, and the small jobs that get put off

Sizing a ring down usually means cutting a section out and soldering it closed again; sizing up means either stretching it slightly or adding metal. Not every ring can be sized at all: a band set with stones the whole way round, one engraved inside, a pattern that runs to the ends, and some metals simply cannot be done. Buying a ring as a present, ask about this at the counter rather than later.

Soldering means a flame, and some stones and pearls do not survive heat: they either come out first or the work is done with a laser. Say what the stones are, and if you do not know, ask them to look. A loose stone is the cheapest repair today and the most expensive one after it falls out; claws wear thin over the years, and "it moves a bit" is a warning, not a habit. A strand of pearls needs restringing every so often, knotted between each pearl so a broken thread does not scatter the lot, and an old clasp on a heavy chain is usually the first thing to give. White gold carries a plating that wears through, so a piece looking yellower is not faulty, it is due to be replated.

Before you leave anything, ask for a written estimate, and whether they call you before carrying on if the price starts to climb.

Something inherited: two numbers that are rarely the same

When a piece is passed down, two separate questions get run together: how much gold is this, and what is it worth as a piece. The metal value can be calculated: weight times purity at the day's rate, less refining. It is the floor. The value as a piece is something else, made up of the quality of the work, the stones, the maker, the age, and whether anyone today wants that shape. It can sit far above the metal, and it can be exactly the metal, which is the usual outcome for plain everyday items. The two rarely meet, and older or heavier does not by itself raise either one.

A shop that would buy the piece from you is a party to the deal, not a neutral judge. For anything that genuinely matters, pay for an independent written valuation, and ask at the outset what purpose it is written for: replacement value for insurance, resale value, and metal value are three different numbers, and a document drawn up for one is not much use for another. If an insurer will rely on it, ask them whose valuation they accept before you pay. Where a piece is to be divided between heirs, one sheet with photographs, weights and karats settles arguments years later.

Insurance: the German detail nobody mentions in time

Household contents insurance (Hausratversicherung) usually covers gold and jewelry, but not on the same terms as the sofa. Policies typically set a separate and much lower ceiling for "valuables" (Wertsachen), often a share of the total sum insured, and inside that ceiling a lower one again for anything not kept in a safe meeting a specified standard. Anything worn or carried outside the home is a different question, and under many policies is either not covered or covered only with an add-on. None of these figures are law. They sit in the wording of your own policy, and the consequence is that one good piece can put you over the limit without anyone mentioning it, and you find out on the day of a claim.

The fix is a conversation with your insurer, not with the jeweller: raise the valuables limit, take out separate cover for named pieces, or decide knowingly to leave it. What the jeweller can give you is exactly what the insurer will ask for later, an invoice with the weight and the karat, a written valuation, and photographs, and those belong somewhere that is not the same drawer as the jewelry. Since the terms, the definition of a safe and the limits are set by your insurer rather than by this page, put the question to them and get it in writing.

Pieces bought for an occasion

A lot of this trade is tied to an occasion: an engagement, a wedding, a birth, a farewell, a Nowruz gift. What is customary in a family, and who gives what, is that family's own business and this page has no view on it. What is practical is this. Guessing somebody else's ring size is the commonest regret in the trade, so ask before you buy whether that ring can be sized later. Engraving usually closes the door on an exchange, so ask first and engrave second. And a commissioned piece is not stock on a shelf: if it is for a fixed date, give the date on the first call and ask the last possible order day.

What to ask when you get in touch

• Melted or reworked: which one this job actually is, and whether there is a route that keeps the piece and still makes it wearable.
• The old gold, figure by figure: the weight as handed over, the karat assumed, what comes off for loss and refining, and the charge for the new work.
• A receipt for anything you leave behind, naming the weight, the karat, a description and the number of stones.
• The point of no return: what you get back if you stop, before and after that stage.
• A written estimate for a repair, whether the estimate itself is charged, and who carries it if the piece is damaged in the workshop.
• What a valuation is written for: replacement, resale or metal value, because those are three different numbers.
• Turnaround and return: whether the work is done in house or sent out, how many days, and whether the piece comes back by insured post.
• YabInfy checks none of this, so ask for it yourself, and ask to see the document where it matters.

Choosing from a short list

For buying something ready made, distance hardly decides anything. For work done on gold you already own it decides a great deal: you have to let the piece go, and explain precisely what you want. That is where a shared language earns its place, not because the workmanship comes out better, but because explaining whose ring this was and what it should become is hard in a second language. It is also the argument for travelling to the right one.

In the reviews, look for what can be judged: whether the piece came back on the day promised, whether the first estimate held or climbed once work had started, whether the risks were named before rather than after. Do not expect a review to tell you whether a valuation was sound or a karat mark honest. Neither is settled by one customer's experience.

Handing family gold to a stranger, and for that matter what you keep at home at all, is not something people want the neighbours discussing. YabInfy keeps no record of who opened which profile or who pressed "Show contact details", so there is nobody it could be told to. The only thing visible from your side is a review you choose to write, under a name you pick yourself.

The FAQ sets out what this site does with anything you enter, and anyone running a workshop or a jewelry counter can add a business themselves.