Antique Gold Beads: Designs, History, Value, and Buying Tips

Antique gold beads have numerous uses for their owners, making them very valuable and sought after. Adding a few antique gold beads to a modern piece of jewelry adds the needed sparkle to your piece and also increases the beauty of your jewelry.

Antique Gold Beads As Investments

The trend nowadays is to invest in actual, solid gold, rather than other types of assets. Your antique gold beads can also be valued and insured, or be kept in a safe in mint condition as your financial security.

Antique gold beads may even have a greater monetary value as compared to modern gold pieces because of their historical origins. You can acquire antique gold beads and jewelry from jewelers that are authentic and certified to get the best value for your money. You could of course spare some beads for that special occasion to wear as jewelry that will make heads turn.

Historical Value Of Antique Gold Beads

The sources of antique gold beads are numerous, from Ancient Egypt, ancient Indian jewelers, the Beautiful Era of the Art Nouveau period as well as the Victorian age. These periods and regions saw great developments in gold working and placed value on gold jewelry to signify wealth, spirituality, beauty and royalty.

It is possible to find antique gold beads and jewelry from any of these periods in time, but you should be prepared to part with quite a substantial amount of money for them.

A Few Tips When Buying Antique Gold Beads

Antique gold beads are very expensive, so you must make sure that you are buying the real thing for such an amount. Do thorough research about the history of gold beads from a library or from the Internet to know what to expect from an antique gold beads dealer. Photographs of the beads should help you identify the real from the fake, which saves you from making plenty of mistakes.

Do not be fooled by beads that are “gold plated” that pass for authentic gold beads. On the other hand, there are genuine antique gold plated beads that you can buy, but the dealer must tell you upfront that they are gold plated. These are usually at a lower price than the all gold beads, so you can opt for them for your jewelry pieces.

Understand that there is a difference between antique gold beads and vintage gold beads. Antique refers to beads that are over 100 years old, while vintage beads are over 20 years old but have not reached the 100 year mark. Vintage gold beads are more readily available, and can serve as alternatives, but genuine antique gold beads are the best deal because of their historical value.

Designs And Patterns Of Antique Gold Beads

You should also be familiar with the different designs of antique gold beads that you will get while purchasing. Designs are mostly of nature because of the period of creating the beads, so you will find flower shapes, symbols of the sun and the moon, and such designs incorporated into the beads.

For all these beads, always look for signs of wear such as they should have larger bead holes due to threading, they should have minute and genuine-looking scratches, and should also be slightly dull in their shine even after polishing.

Remember to consult a professional jeweler before making any purchases to ensure that your antique gold beads are genuine and worth the deal.