Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I clean my jewelry?
A: the best way is to have your jewelry professionally cleaned. Fine precious metal jewelry can be damaged in several ways by cleaning.

1. Gold is a soft metal as is silver. Most cleaners and cleaning methods can scrpae and scratch your jewelry. Scraping and scratching your jewelry detracts from their value as well as their appearance.
2. Silver jewelry, especially can be damaged because the discoloration usually called tarnish is removed by most cleaning methods. Since the "tarnish" is actually silver oxide, when you remove it you are removing silver from your precious jewelry.
3. Precious metal jewelry with stones mounted is very suseptible to improper cleaning. Stones are "mounted" in your jewelry by various methods but all of them in some way press the metal against the stones. In a common method, "prongs" are used. These prongs are relatively easy to pull away from the stones by rubbing with cloths. If you loosen a stone by releasing the pressure of the prongs, you may lose the stone during normal wear.
Professional cleaning is a very low price to pay to maintain the value of your precious jewelry.

Q: Is it really important to get an Appraisal on my jewelry?
A: You should update your jewelry appraisal every 3 years for insurance purposes.
Most people only have their jewelry appraised at the time of purchase. While this is important for insurance valuation, the volatile prices of precious metals  over the past few years have made it more important that you have a recent appraisal of your valuables, for insurance purposes, especially if you have a substantial quantity.

Q: What is the difference between retail, insurance, and pawn value of an item of jewelry?
A: 1. A retail appraisal is the type of appraisal you usually get when buying new Jewelry at retail from a reputable jeweler. The value that the appraiser lists is a value around the estimated retail value of the jewelry being examined. This value includes material values and workmanship values.
2. An insurance appraisal is similar to a retail appraisal, in that it takes into acocunt quality of workmanship and other considerations, such as replacement value. Insurance value also takes in to consideration such factors as rarity and in many cases, an approximated high auction value of an item.
3. A Pawn appraisal, is a special appraisal, in that it is generally based on a quick sale price of the item with consideration given to the raw value(s) of materials. This raw value of materials is also called "melt."
When one considers the pawn value of an item of jewelry, it is important to understand the current volatility of the precious metals market. Each of these appraisals give you important information about your own specific jewelry items. When you are trying to find out "what it's worth" remember that you might get very different answeers, depending on who you are asking.

Q: What is Estate Jewelry"
A: The answer will be posted the first week of February. If you think you know the answer, call Jay @ LaTienda and tell him what the answer is. He might give you a special gift if you are right.