How To Start Collecting Charms

For many people collecting charms for bracelets is a serious hobby or interest. There are thousands of charms listed as collector items on online auction and sales websites, so knowing a bit about what makes a charm valuable and what is a reasonable price to pay for a charm is important.
 
Gold charms as well as charms in other metals have been produced for generations, so getting the quality and item you want does take a bit of knowledge on the subject.

The first thing to do when starting a collection of gold charms or charms of other types of metals is to learn how to identify the specific metal. Gold charms will not have the gold flaking off the surface, however poorer quality imitations of gold charms often do.

Both gold charms and silver charms have been around since the charms first became popular in the 1900s.  There are some charms, such as the mechanical charms, which were very popular from the early 1930’s through to the 60’s, but there are also newer replicas of these moving charms now available.

Generally the older styles of charms will show some signs of wear and tear, however both gold and silver are very durable metals. There may be slight scratching on smooth surfaces, but often the ring or shank of the charm will show signs of rubbing against other metals.

Checking online to see how many copies of the types of gold charms you are interested in is also a key factor in determining if they are really collectable or not. If there are multiple copies from many sellers they aren’t rare and are definitely not antique or unique.

Be very careful of the terminology used by various sellers. Vintage does not necessarily mean antique or rare, and it definitely doesn’t always mean expensive. Some gold charms and gold charm bracelets sold as vintage were made in the 1970s and 1980’s, hardly rating these items as old let alone antique or rare.

As with new charms, older collectable gold charms should be clean, free from damage and have lots of detail. With enameled charms look closely at the paint and enamel and make sure it is in good condition and not scratched or damaged.

While most gold charms are reasonably priced, some of the jeweled charms or platinum charms can actually be several hundreds of dollars each. Rare gold charms and unique styles of gold charm bracelets need to also be something you would wear to make them of value to your collection.