Spot is a wholesale reference price for one troy ounce (31.1035 g) of pure metal, traded in tonnes between institutions. Nobody sells you a single coin at spot, and nobody ever has.

What you pay is spot on the fine weight — the actual pure metal content once purity is applied — plus a premium. A 1 oz coin at .9999 carries essentially a full ounce of gold; a sterling item at 92.5% carries far less fine silver than its gross weight suggests.

The premium covers refining to investment purity, die cutting, striking, assay and certification, packaging, insured freight, and the mint's own margin. Smaller units carry a bigger premium per ounce because the same work is spread over less metal — ten 1 oz coins cost more than one 10 oz bar of identical fineness.

On the way back out, a dealer buys under spot. That spread funds testing, holding the stock, and the price risk carried until it is resold or refined. A buy price and a sell price are two different numbers, always.

Even in bullion — the closest thing to pure metal you can buy — you are paying for work. Refining, minting, verification and logistics all have a cost, and it is real.

Melt a finished ring down and you would be shocked at how little metal is there. A typical 18K band is 3–6 grams, of which 75% is fine gold. That figure is not the price of the ring, and it never was.

What you are commissioning is a sequence of skilled hours:

• Consultation and design — drawing, CAD modelling, and revisions until it is right.
• Stone sourcing — selecting for cut, colour and clarity in person rather than from a listing, plus certification.
• Wax printing and casting — moulds, investment, burnout, pour, and cast cleanup.
• Setting — the highest-risk step in the entire job. A slipped graver on a claw can cost a stone.
• Finishing — filing, pre-polish, polish, rhodium or plating, final inspection.
• Sizing, engraving, aftercare, and warranty on the work.

On a hand-made piece, the metal is commonly a minority of the total — often well under a third once stones and labour are counted. Two rings of identical gram weight can be separated by many hours of bench time, and that difference is what you see and wear every day.

You are not buying grams. You are buying a design that fits your hand, stones chosen by eye, and setting work that holds them for a lifetime. Labour has value.

Bringing in an heirloom is the most rewarding work we do — and the most misunderstood on price. Old gold is not a blank cheque against a new piece, but it is genuinely credited.

First we establish what is actually there. Stamps lie, plating hides base metal, and solder joints are usually a lower carat than the body. We assay to get true fine content, and we weigh gross versus fine separately.

Then there is melt loss. Reclaiming old metal burns off solder, oxides and contamination; scrap does not come back at 100%. Heavily worked or mixed-carat pieces refine less cleanly than clean stock.

Reworking is often more labour than starting fresh. Stones must be safely removed and checked for chips, old settings cut away, metal annealed and reformed, and the new design worked around whatever the original piece dictates. Sentiment also raises the stakes: there is no second attempt at your grandmother's ring.

Your old metal is credited at its recovered fine value against the new commission — so the gold carries over, while the bench work on the new piece is quoted on its own terms.

Remodelling keeps the story and the metal. What you pay for is the care and the skill it takes to move both safely into something you will wear again.