Your Mother's Jewelry Box May Hide a FORTUNE — 9 Pieces a Retired Jeweler Would Never Sell

She set her mother's jewelry box on my counter and said, "Just tell me what the gold is." Inside was a ring in a sandwich bag with a little black circle in the diamond, and a strand of pearls she was sure were fake. I'm Miriam, a retired jeweler who stood behind the counter of my father's store in Cleveland Heights for 42 years. With gold around $4,100 an ounce, the easiest offer a family hears for inherited jewelry is the melt price. These are the 9 pieces I would never sell for scrap: old European cut diamonds, Georgian foil-back jewels, signed Retro gold, Victorian mourning jewelry, natural pearls, Art Deco platinum rings, gold pocket watches, modernist silver and the charm bracelet. How to spot each one at the kitchen table, the stories from my counter, and real auction results, from a Van Cleef and Arpels bracelet that brought about 10 times its gold to a pocket watch that sold for $24 million. What's the oldest piece in your mother's jewelry box? Tell me in the comments. Subscribe for the stories from behind the counter, the treasures, the fakes and the tears. Look at every piece by daylight before anybody puts it on a scale. Your mother kept that box for 50 years. Give it one more week. #jewelry #antiquejewelry #retiredjeweler