Golden Opportunity
Rennie Grove Peace Hospice Care is appealing for donations of gold and silver jewellery, coins, watches and silverware to raise money to fund local hospice care.
Barrie has been volunteering with the charity for around 15 years. After starting as a volunteer in one of the charity’s shops, he later offered to share his 30 years’ experience as an antiques dealer to help the charity realise the value of donations of jewellery, silver and other precious metals.
Barrie now volunteers between 8 and 12 hours per week at the charity’s retail support hub in Berkhamsted. All donations that are received in the charity’s shops within Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire are sent to the retail hub where Barrie assesses, values, cleans and mends donations as required.
Items of value are then sold via the charity’s online eBay shop to raise funds for local hospice care. Broken or damaged items are sold by weight to generate value from the metal.
Barrie says: ‘At a glance, I can make an initial assessment on whether something might be valuable. Then, I have a range of tools which help to more accurately ascertain value, age, weight and authenticity.
‘I use an acid test kit to determine whether an item is genuine gold or silver, a diamond tester which will react if it comes into contact with a diamond, and jewellery scales which very precisely record weight. The value of gold and silver is really strong at the moment, so it’s important to get the right price.
‘We’re really keen to receive donations of gold and silver jewellery, coins, precious metals, watches, vintage watches, military medals and silverware. These could be things you no longer want, items that have seen better days or are just taking up space in your home. We will do the hard work by sorting, polishing and evaluating your unwanted items to sell on our eBay store and raise money to fund vital hospice care services.’
Items can be donated to the charity’s retail support hub, Bainbridge House (2 Northbridge Rd, Berkhamsted), on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10am-4pm or to any Rennie Grove Peace shop between 10am-4pm each day that the shop is open.
