It might be a moral dilemma

I bought a small bag of broken jewellery from a charity shop today. I make gemstone jewellery and was after the semi-precious stone chips that were in there. Included in there was a small piece of what I think has come off an earring. It was rather mucky and I cleaned it up. I think it is gold (if it is from an earring the hallmark would probably be on the piece it came off) and it has a diamond looking stone set in it. I am not a fan of diamonds, so I do not have one to compare it with, but after it was cleaned it sparkles a lot. I have checked up on line and it seems to be a diamond. The thing is going on an online calculator for how many carats it is approximately 3 carats. Which if that is the case it is worth 15-30k depending on the quality.
Before I start yelling I am rich, I obviously need to find out one way or the other what it is. Would an average jeweller be able to tell me, or does it need a specialist?

Hi Kai, if you have a manufacturing jeweller they would give you a valuation which would tell you if it was a piece of sparkly glass or a diamond by the value. Most jewellers I think usually have a somebody in their shops for valuing jewellery for insurance purposes which should be able to help you. Good luck- may you be lucky.

Most ordinary jewelers will have in their shop a little gadget for testing diamonds. It shines a light into the diamond which responds with a red light if real. If just a zircon or similar, it will not respond with this colour. Gemologists could also test. I think under a black light they glow blue.

further cleaning, and I am thinking the setting is gold plated rather than gold, so unfortunately, probably just a very good cubic zirconia, well I was rich for a day..... :dry:

Get it checked anyway, at least then you will know its value.

Hi Kai,

I had a similar question on a "diamond" ring I bought from a second hand warehouse in New Castle, Australia. The ring stood out from the rest of the line of jewellery it was displayed with, but the low price had me suspicious. I bought it on the premise it would just be a fake, but curiosity got the better of me when I got back to Sydney.
I took it to a jeweller and he checked it with his eye piece and stated "Genuine diamond". He explained Diamonds have little "inclusions" that occur naturally. Man made "diamonds" do not have inclusions. So that starting point had me more curious as to its real worth...
As to the question of Value... He said was not a valuer, I'd have to take it to a Valuer.

Another big jewellery store had a sign out that they had a Valuer on-site for the next couple weeks, so I took my ring in to be valued and resized. The stone was a small but high class white diamond solitaire set in 9ct gold. Value was 4 times what I paid for it, due to the stone, not the 9ct gold setting. But it was also explained to me that it was the INSURANCE value and not the selling price value of the ring. Regardless, to me it is priceless.

great to hear of someone getting lucky! There was that issue a while ago of jewelers taking in stuff for valuation and swapping the stone out!

YepTB. My late father in law insisted on having any valuations done at the time he took them in and remained with the jeweller all the time-even though the jeweller was in the same lodge!!.