Errands

I called my son today to thank him for finding a sitter for the Electric Kid. I love my grandson to distraction, don't get me wrong, but I've worked 13 days straight at my job (for at least 1 hrs per day) and had filled the rest of them with watch guys and babysitting and even (tomorrow) a trip for the Big Lug. I've felt as if I were in one of those running, running, running dreams, the ones in which you're not being chased, and you aren't moving toward a goal, you're just running. I always feel insanely tired after one of those, waking exhausted and befuddled, and I almost always have the dream when I'm stressed to the max. Between my mom's plight, my work schedule, and the extra responsibility, I didn't need to fall asleep to have the dream.

But today I got a break. And I took advantage of it to run errands and hunt my thrift shops - well, I'd planned to go to more than two, but I had only time for two. This turned out to be not a problem at all. In fact, it was a very good day - a pair of rose gold earrings and a white gold pin, in fact (nice ones), and several sterling pieces I will offer up to my kids if they want to pass them along or use for "secret Santa" stuff this coming holiday season (when I will be in Texas).

I needed to do this. I didn't know how much I needed the time - and the fabulous finds - to somehow reinforce that I am somehow worthy (no matter how lame that sounds), that I am smart (the earrings had been there for nearly a month, and the pin had no visible marks), and that I am going in the right direction with both my "hobby" and my life. The earrings made me whisper my "thank yous" the entire trip home. But when the eight tiny "diamonds" on the pin tested real, my breath caught, and then - shaking so badly I could hardly hold my loupe - I found the "750" hidden beneath the clasp, I burst into tears.

I didn't really know why, not then, but I've figured it out. Firstly, the Dow closed over 10,000 for the first time in a year; I've been more worried about our finances (never mind reaching my goal) than I thought I had, but I reacted with cynicism yesterday instead of happiness. Second, although I loved going through the watches last Friday, and loved what I found and what I bought, it was more "work" than "fun" - I had to make decisions, and that's all I've been doing lately. Third, and most importantly, I have only two oases in the Hidalgo-like endurance race that is my life right now: the Big Lug's arms and shopping for treasures. To find one piece would have been fantastic. To find two was a bloody miracle - especially since I wouldn't've gone anywhere near these places for at least another week without my son's gracious understanding, his efforts to not take me for granted. That made a difference.

I told him about the finds, by the way, just a minute ago. He didn't seem thrilled. Maybe he was late for his meeting, or maybe he thought I'd fill my entire day with the catch-up I needed to do, the other work I have so much of, but I couldn't. I don't know. I'm still sensitive enough to wonder. But I had to take a moment - today - to find the fantasy, the good dream again. I had to break from the calls, the plans, the anger and sadness and frustration.

And I had to - had to - learn to Trust again. Not the small-"T" kind but Trust, with a capital. I'm going to need that kernal of serenity, that hope fulfilled feeling, in the coming months. Today has helped me toward that.

I know now that I'm not strong enough to keep going on my path, or to find my way, without a sign or two. I'm glad I found that out today. And I'm beyond grateful that if Someone had to pick a sign for me to see that it was this big, freaking, neon "ATTAGIRL!"

Calculating

I had my first encounter with a purposely misleading piece last Saturday. No, that ring I picked up a few weeks back doesn't count - I haven't had it tested yet, so I don't know for sure. This tale is actually one of deliberate fabrication ... and an honest man.

I've lived in my house since 1993, and in all that time, though I'd seen a nearby civic association advertise periodic sales, I never went to one - it was only 13 miles away, but around here, 13 miles might as well be 13 million. I went to my first on Saturday. At 7 am it was already Hell soup, so, after finding a parking place (not easy!) on the street, I walked into the roped-off lot where they had it, saw 15 vendors or so, and figured I'd give it a quick circuit before trucking off to find whatever was really clogging up the streets with parked cars.

In the first booth, a woman was selling many household things, even a few nice prints, but only costume and silver jewelry. The second had sculptural pieces and some good men's stuff - not good enough for the Big Lug, though. But the third ... ah, the third had watches. Vintage watches. Mostly men's, but several women's, and lots of pieces (watches with no bands, bezel with just crystal, bands with no watches), all ten kinds of beat up, but with potential. Among them, tangled with my treasures, were chains, old earrings, even cuff links. Looked like someone had bought a box lot at an auction and was selling it "as found." I gathered several promising snippets, sorting and organizing as I went - a stud without a mate (wait, found!), a chain to hang on the lid (glance, 1/20 GF), a stray stem and crown, another chain (glance, 18K), half of a -

Hold the phone. 18K? 18 freaking karat? Yep - a filthy, s-link, nasty piece of work with a tag that said, "18K, Italy."

My hand shook. It was heavy. I glanced at the pair running the show - one was young and ingenuous, one old and busy with a loupe in the open door of their van, which was, as yet, not completely unpacked. So I indicated my pile (mostly women's pieces, one watch with no band for the Lug, and the chain sitting above it) and asked the younger, "how much for all?" and he said "twenty bucks." I pointed. "Including the chain?" His smooth brow puckered, and he held the item up for (I guess) Dad's okay. "That's base metal," he said without hesitation. I started to correct him, but he'd already gone back to his study, shutting me out, and the younger threw it in with the women's stuff. "The man's watch is an extra ten," he said apologetically.

I looked everything over, my brain churning. $20 for the watch bits (the better to mad scientist with) was fair, but the Gruen was a bit steep. Yet if the chain were gold, it would pay for the lot ... but not assuage my guilt ... unless I pulled out my blue plastic thingie and could tell them they were giving it away ...

What the heck. I left my loupe in my pants, said "yes" to the bits, and "yes" to the Lug's watch, too.

When I turned to go to the next booth, I was so astonished by the sudden, panoramic view of the rest of the vendors - I was on the top floor of parking garage with three more levels, and 50 or so per level - that my avarice and greed took a temporary hike. After all, I'd figure it out later; the Elysian Fields was just steps away!

I wandered, talked to vendors, even bought a few more things - another watch (which doesn't work, either, but it's fabulous), a pool cue, and an ashtray stand for the Lug. And I purposefully didn't look at the chain. But my math mind was beeping away independent of any potential morality play ...

The price of gold is $954.48 per ounce. (Troy ounces, of course, and jewelry is rarely a full ounce, so I think in grams.) 31.1 grams in a Troy ounce ... is that Panelled Grape? ... round it, divide it, call it 30 bucks a gram. (Okay, I looked up the price when I got home - lately it's always just 30 bucks a gram to me.) So if it's 18K that's 18/24 of pure gold which is ... common factor of 6 ... 3/4 ... and it's heavy, heavier than my bracelet, call it 12 grams ... wow, look at that woman's hat! ... no, 10 conservatively ... so if I sell it through my direct link to the foundry, I'd get ... 10 grams times .750 times $30 ... $225.00.

I didn't get palpitations, I swear, because I wasn't going to get myself worked up. He'd seemed so sure.

Anyway, I spent nearly 4 hours there instead of 30 minutes, fell in love with the feel of it and the spectacle of it (I love flea markets!) so I know I'll go back. Then the Big Lug and I went on a bit of a road trip to find a can of his favorite pipe tobacco, the bits and chain all in the back the whole way. (He told me the chain felt too light ... my greedy girl wanted to slap him.) Once home, however, I put the thing in some ammonia-water, scrubbed it all up, and found ...

A gold tag on a dull, steely chain. Yep, the stamped ID was gold, but nothing else was. And it was obviously put on after the fact by some devious, calculating creep out to cheat someone - probably the box lot person.

The man who sold it to me, however, wasn't that creep, nor anyone of his ilk. Dad could have pulled a con. Shoot, Son could've seen it a mile away and ignored Dad - I know for a fact I have no poker face - but they didn't. And now I have a memento, an object lesson, and a teaching tool, all in one.

It was a pretty good day.

There's Gold in Them Thar ... Yards!

Since ancient times, gold has held our entire species captive. Sure, it's useful - the most ductile and malleable metal around, easily alloyed with just about any other metal, doesn't easily corrode or disintegrate, conducts electricity like an uber-shepherd - but, honestly, we love it because it's stunningly gorgeous. Since it's also worth a bloody fortune right now, its desirability quotient has shot the moon. All you need to do is know what you're looking at.

Make a checklist. First, simply look for hallmarks. These are usually inside the band in rings, hidden in the rear of the design in pendants (or on the jump ring - the thing that connects the pendant to the chain), on or near the clasp of chains, on the stem or the back of the charm on pins and stickpins, or on the posts or wires of earrings. American jewelry is marked with symbols we know well - 10K (or KT), 14K, 18K are the most familiar - but other countries mark with the content numbers (416, 583 or 585, and 750 are the corresponding symbols for our "big three") or other letters ("C" or "CT" instead of K's). They're all the same thing - pure gold is 24K, and each numeric mark is its decimal version of ours, so 10K divided by 24K = .41666666 which is why it's "416." (It also helps calculate value - more on that next time.) Unfortunately, with foreign gold you might also see plants, animals, ladies, or even anchors or castles, too (or instead of). It gets confusing sometimes. (See this web site for the UK stuff, and this site for a decent overall.)

You're not done. There are legibility issues. Many times these marks are so tiny they look like a fold in the metal to the naked eye, or they might be double stamped (maker's error) or scratched up or worn away by repeated use (my wedding band is barely legible), or maybe they're hidden in a too-elaborate design, or the piece was never imprinted at all (if it was never intended for interstate sale or it's just too old to require a mark).

Did I say "simple?"

Okay, just memorize it, little by little. Learn the imprints - at least the various countries' hallmarks for gold, silver, and platinum so you can tell them apart. And understand what is and what isn't a good number - while any set of three digits might be gold marks, they won't always be. I found a piece marked "835" (corresponds to .835) which, when you multiply by 24K is almost (almost) 20K, but it's not quite. That should have been a dead giveaway - that, and the fact that 20K, a rare karat strength to begin with, is usually marked "833." (It was silver.) And if you read "915" on the post of an earring, it could be 22K gold, but it's far more likely that you are reading a misprint upside-down - "STG" (sterling) without the top strip looks just like a reversed "915." (I know this from experience - I bought a pair a few weeks back. Oh, and 22K is mostly marked 916, even though it's 915 sometimes - don't you want to strangle those markers?) So, the moral to the story is, if you encounter something marked with "835" or "915," don't pay much for it (the earrings were 50 cents) so that if it's gold you're made in the shade, but if it's silver, you can inherit it forward to your favorite charity shop, or wear it and love it as I do.

We're not done.

About 150 years ago, some enterprising wunderkind discovered plating, and jewelry was one of the first places we used it. Easiest way to figure that out, of course, is to find "1/20 12K" (or whatever karat) instead of just "12K" on the piece. That "1/20" means that the top 1/20 mm of the piece is 12K gold (or it's 1/20th of the weight - again, kill). A small bit is gold, so is worth something, of course ... if you have a strong back and a lot of time. (You might also see "GF," "GP," "HGE" or even "gold plated," but it all means the same - it's just covered with gold.) I buy it, but I'd better love it to pay more than a dollar or so. (See this guy for those marks.) By the way, "14KP" doesn't mean plated. The "P" stands for "pure." And "Plat" or "Pt" means "platinum" - not my lovely gold, but just as good (here is a decent overall for Americans).

Oh, and to complicate things further, there are pieces out there that have been "after market" printed - in other words, stamped with "14K" but just big, fat fakes. I have one myself. Maybe more than one ...

It's a jungle out there, people. But there truly are many ways to tell what you might be holding.

Don't trust your eyes. Carry a loupe, and use it. I'm actually allergic to nickel so I used to just tell the sellers when they get anxious or excited, but it didn't work - they thought I knew what I was doing, and if they think you're a dealer they will wrangle accordingly. A few months back, I bought a good, 20X magnifier that's blue, plastic, and hangs on a keychain. Hard to look like a pro with that thing. And offer to look at any other pieces once you've bought the one you have - at the place where I found the silver Tiffany earrings, the seller actually had some things behind the table because she realized there were stamps but she couldn't read them with her naked eye. I hadn't used the loupe because the price was so good ($2) but I used it to read a glass mark at her neighbor's table (neighborhood yard sale, in a parking lot). She saw me and asked, so I read them to her. All were either unmarked or gold plated - good names, some of them, so I felt pretty good about helping her out. I'd like to think I had some forward Karma, there.

Just a note - if you do see something that was a mark but is wiped out or blurry, negotiate a lower price; I always figure it's silver and try to price it accordingly.

Gilt or gold? Use that loupe to look for scuff marks, too. Plating wears off with time, leaving discolored and (usually under magnification) obvious shallow holes. But make sure they really are holes - the $5 earrings I bought in Arkansas were blackened and a bit beat up so I figured they were plated (mark was only partially there, and easily misread), but decided to gamble because I couldn't see the edge of the plating. A thorough cleaning revealed they were solid 14K gold. (Author's note - leave them alone a bit because they darkened up again ... plated, darn it, with gold posts only.)

My jewelry tutor also said that heavy and solid probably means plated, while filigreed and airy stands a better chance at golddom - what jeweler in his right mind would mismark something made with enough gold to weigh down your hand, right? (And with earrings, a stainless steel post is almost assuredly a dead giveaway.)

Look-alike or the real thing? First I weigh it in my palm. Gold has a certain heft to it - but I can't explain it because I have to feel it. I'll run a chain through my fingers - it's silky. (I spent a lot of time at good jewelry stores and antique malls unabashedly feeling up the gold.) Second, I have a gold wedding band, bi-colored, that never leaves my hand (except when working with power tools). I use it as a control - I always maneuver the piece so that it sits right on top of the yellow part of the band, then I compare both the color and the texture of any suspected pieces. Anything too orange or too light, too smooth or too pitted, I think twice.

Color, by the way, is complicated - "green" gold, "rose" gold, "white" gold, and "yellow" gold, all have their own shades and glints. Higher karats can be darker, too, as can lower (depends on how much of the alloy is copper). And gold from one country or region might be slightly oranger or lighter than in others - did you know the gold in the California Gold Rush was only a surprise because the people there thought it was pyrite (fool's gold) since it wasn't the same color as the Georgia gold (where the previous gold rush had occurred)?

Confused yet?

I was, for months, but some persistance and lots of good examples helped. Truth is, gold is out there in more quantity than I ever dreamed, just waiting to be found. Like anything else worth doing, it takes practice, patience, and a few mistakes - okay, a lot of mistakes. But since I refuse to risk more than a few dollars a pop, especially for those "too good to be true" pieces, I'm rarely disappointed. And I'm getting much, much better.

Just wait 'til I start prospecting!