Selling dental gold: what counts?
A gold crown the dentist once gave you, a bridge or a gold filling in a little box, a post crown at the back of a drawer. If you want to sell dental gold, you mainly want to know whether it is real gold and what it is worth. The short answer: dental gold is real gold, but never pure gold. It is mixed with other metals, which make the tooth hard and strong.
You cannot tell from the colour how much gold is in your crown. It usually has no hallmark either. That is why we test every piece. If there is gold in it, we calculate with the weight of the metal, a fixed gold content and the gold rate of the day. That fixed content is lower than a nice yellow crown would suggest. You can read why below.
What is dental gold exactly?
Pure gold is too soft to chew on. With ten percent copper added, it already becomes almost four times as strong. A dental technician therefore mixes the gold with other metals: silver, platinum or palladium, with smaller amounts of copper and zinc. Such a mixture of metals is called an alloy.
Today dentists increasingly choose ceramics or zirconia. Dental gold you keep at home is therefore usually old work. Which alloy the technician chose back then is not written anywhere on it.
How much gold is in a gold crown?
The American Dental Association divides the metals for crowns into three groups. It only looks at gold and the platinum group metals, such as platinum and palladium. Silver does not count.
| Group | Gold and platinum group metals together |
|---|---|
| High noble | at least 60%, of which at least 40% gold |
| Noble | at least 25% |
| Predominantly base metal | less than 25% |
The classic yellow crowns and bridges belong to the top group. They often contain between 60 and 80 percent gold. But when gold became more expensive, alloys with less gold and more palladium appeared as well. Which kind is in your box, you cannot tell by looking at it.
Yellow, white or silver coloured? You cannot recognise dental gold by its colour
A yellow crown can contain a lot of gold. But there are also gold coloured crowns made of copper and aluminium, without any gold. They were made because gold had become too expensive.
Conversely, a white crown can contain gold: there are white alloys with almost half gold. A silver coloured crown can also be mainly palladium or platinum, or an ordinary metal such as nickel chromium, with no value to a gold buyer. So from the outside you cannot see the difference. Only a test tells whether there is gold in it.
The ordinary grey fillings are sometimes called silver fillings, but they are made of amalgam: about half mercury, with silver, tin, copper and zinc. We do not buy those fillings.
Why dental gold is bought at a lower gold content
On a gold ring, the hallmark tells you how much gold is in it. With dental gold, that guide is missing.
- A crown usually carries no hallmark A crown is made to measure. How much gold is in it cannot be read from it.
- Every crown has its own composition Besides gold, there is other metal in it, such as platinum or palladium, to make the crown strong, because you bite on it. The proportion differs from crown to crown.
- What is in it is hard to check You cannot see it from the colour, nor with the naked eye.
- Hence a safety margin In the trade, dental gold is bought at a lower gold content than a yellow crown would suggest.
That lower content is therefore a safety margin, not a measurement of your crown. Some crowns contain a lot of gold, others little or none.
At De Munter we use the same fixed content for every crown. Only the gold counts: we do not pay separately for platinum or palladium in a crown. What happens to your gold after the sale, you can read on our page about melting and refining gold.
Dental gold from a late parent: inheritance and cremation
If you find dental gold among the belongings of your late father or mother, it is part of the estate, just like jewellery. If there are several heirs and the estate has not yet been divided, a sale in principle requires the consent of all heirs. If you are the only heir, you decide yourself.
And after a cremation? The crematorium then separates the metals from the ashes. They are recycled, and the proceeds go to charity. Whether the family can reclaim the dental gold afterwards is not clearly regulated in Belgium.
Selling dental gold: how to go about it
- Preferably bring only the gold. The crown, bridge or filling on its own, without tooth remains. Anything still attached does not count in the weight.
- Do not judge by the colour. Yellow, white or silver coloured: only a test tells whether there is gold in it.
- Selling from an estate? Make sure all heirs agree.
- Feel free to combine. You can sell dental gold in one go together with old jewellery and other old gold.
Do you have dental gold lying around and would you like to know whether there is gold in it and what it is worth today? Have it valued without obligation. We test and weigh it in front of you, and go through the gold content, the weight and the current gold rate with you. If you do not agree, you get your dental gold back. Do keep your identity card at hand. We come to your home, or you come to a visiting day in your municipality.