About Chapman Gold

Welcome to Chapman Gold.

Chapman Gold is a British family firm dealing in fine preowned, vintage and antique gold jewellery: beautiful pieces to wear, and a simple way to own real gold. Our Collection comes in two halves. The Live Collection is everyday gold jewellery and accessories, priced honestly and directly from the live gold market: a fixed, published margin over the metal, and nothing hidden. The Vault is for named, antique and exceptional pieces, worth more than the metal they are made of and priced on merit rather than by weight. Check our working against the market yourself on The Gold Price.

Gold has outlived every currency ever printed, and in a world of money printing and mounting debt the oldest form of wealth is still the simplest: what you hold in your hand. Wealth preservation with a clasp. The whole case is in The Gold Story, our cited history of gold, kept current in The Gold News.

Every piece is weighed and priced with its true gold content in plain sight. Where a piece carries a British hallmark we tell you what the marks say, and you can see them in the photographs. Where it does not, and some antique and very small pieces are lawfully unmarked, we say so on the listing rather than let a stamp do the talking. You should never have to guess which. Nor do you have to take our word for it, because the marks are readable and we will teach you to read them.

A hallmark is the oldest consumer protection in Britain, and a British hallmark carries its story in miniature: who made it, where it was tested, and when. Read them in Hallmarking Explained, or hold your own jewellery up to our free Hallmark Identifier: pick an office, work through the marks, and it gives you the year and often the sponsor who registered the mark. It works on any British piece: one of ours, one you inherited, one you are thinking of buying elsewhere. No account needed, and nothing for sale on the page.

We have a mark of our own. Chapman Gold Ltd is registered with Birmingham Assay Office, which has struck marks since 1773, and our sponsor's mark is EEC, the initials of Ernest Edward Chapman. Where a piece we sell needs a UK hallmark it goes to Birmingham to be tested and struck, so what we tell you about the metal is not simply our word for it. They are the independent authority. We are their customer, nothing more. And if what you need is a written valuation for insurance or probate, or a certificate for a stone, that is their work and not ours: jewellery valuations and gemstone assessment. We do not value what we might buy.

Your Chapman account is free. Chapman Members gives you a membership number for life, first sight of new pieces before they reach the public shop, and your own jewellery account: every piece you buy from us shown with the live value of the gold within it, tracking the market minute by minute. And our best rates when you sell or consign your own gold.

When you find the piece, take it outright or reserve it with Layaway, the Chapman way: a 25% deposit, up to 90 days to pay, and no interest, no late fees and no credit checks, ever. Plain English terms, printed in full before you start. You own it outright at the end, never on credit. However you buy, it arrives in a Chapman presentation box, fully insured, next day, with thirty day returns. Questions? Talk to us.

Chapman pricing, explained

Every piece in our Live Collection is weighed and priced from the live gold market, recalculated every minute of every day. The margin over the metal is fixed and it falls as the piece gets heavier: under 10 grams is 1.40 times the gold content, 10 to 20 grams is 1.30, 20 to 50 grams is 1.25, and above 50 grams just 1.20 times the metal. The smallest pieces carry the highest multiple for one plain reason: insured next day delivery and the presentation box cost the same on a 3 gram charm as on a 60 gram chain. Silver is priced the same honest way, at twice its metal value. Those are our margins, published for anyone to check against the live price above. The Vault is priced differently, because named, antique and exceptional pieces are worth more than the metal they are made of: those are priced on merit, and we will always tell you the metal value beneath them.

And that price is the whole price. It includes everything we do to a piece before it reaches you: professional cleaning and polishing, any repair work at the bench, hallmark checks, the Chapman presentation box, fully insured next day delivery, and thirty day no quibble returns. All included. Nothing added at checkout.

Why can we price this way? Because our margins are deliberately tight and our prices are built to be unbeatable. This business runs on turnover, not on sitting on stock waiting for one well-paid day. Good pieces at honest prices move quickly, and when a piece is gone, it is gone.