Education
The Paperwork, by What You Might Need It For
Four situations, four different documents β and most people keep the least useful one.
Written by the Mapple Gems workshop, Surat Β· Updated 10 October 2026
Short answer
A claim needs a current appraisal, photographs and a police reference. A repair needs the specification, the alloy and the melee parcel details. A sale needs the report and the gram weight. An inheritance needs all of it plus the one thing no document contains: the story. Most households keep the receipt and the certificate β and the receipt is the least useful of the five.
People keep jewellery paperwork out of a general sense that it matters, without knowing which parts do what. Organising it by situation rather than by document makes the gaps obvious.
Every scenario except a sale needs the piece DESCRIBED, and almost nobody keeps a description β they keep a price. A receipt records what was paid, which is the one fact none of these situations turns on. An insurer replacing a ring needs to know what to rebuild. A bench cutting a new head needs the stoneβs actual millimetres. A jeweller matching a lost accent needs the parcel it came from. An heir needs to know what they are holding. Not one of those questions is answered by a number with a currency symbol in front of it. What answers all of them is the written specification β metal and karat, gram weight, centre stone millimetres and depth, accent count and size, shank width and thickness β and it is the document nobody requests, because it costs a seller nothing and is therefore never volunteered. The gap is widest on accent stones. Melee under about 0.20Β ct is never individually certified in any material, so if the parcel specification was not recorded at purchase, no record of those stones exists anywhere in the world. Fifteen years later, when one is lost, that absence is the whole problem.
What each situation actually needs
| Situation | Essential | Helpful |
|---|---|---|
| Insurance claim | Current appraisal; photographs | Specification; inscription |
| Repair or rebuild | Specification; parcel spec | CAD file; alloy |
| Selling | Report; gram weight; fineness | Original receipt |
| Passing it on | All of the above, plus the story | Marks photographed close up |
| Theft | Inscription number | Photographs; description |
Note that the receipt appears once, as βhelpfulβ. It is worth keeping β it establishes ownership and date β but it is not the workhorse people assume.
The five things to have
- The written specification. Metal and karat, finished gram weight, centre stone millimetres and depth, accent count and size, shank width and thickness. Ask at purchase; it costs the seller nothing.
- Photographs. Several angles, the view from underneath, and a close shot of the marks inside the shank. Three minutes.
- Any grading report, with the inscription number noted separately. A report belongs to a stone rather than a ring, and the inscription is the link.
- A dated appraisal, refreshed as your insurer requires β it states retail replacement cost, not what anyone would pay you.
- A paragraph of story for anything with history: who owned it, roughly when it was acquired, where from, and whether it has been altered.
The one with no other source
Four of those five can be reconstructed, slowly and imperfectly, by a competent bench with the piece in hand. The story cannot be reconstructed at all.
Provenance is the only thing that reliably makes a piece worth more than its materials, and it exists solely as information held in one personβs memory. When that person is gone, it is gone β and we see the result constantly: someone arrives with a ring they have inherited and no idea what it is, whether the stone is anything, or who made it. Almost all of that was knowable one generation earlier.
Two related habits. Transcribe any interior engraving, because it can wear or be cut through in a future resize. And photograph the marks inside the shank close up β a fineness stamp, a makerβs mark, an assay mark β because those are the identifying evidence and they are exactly what a polish destroys.
Where to keep it
Digitally, and not only on one phone. Photograph the paper documents as well as the pieces, and keep the set somewhere it survives a lost device.
And separately from the jewellery itself. A safe holding both the pieces and their only documentation is a single point of failure β in a theft or a fire you lose the objects and the evidence together, which is precisely the situation the paperwork existed for.
Update it when things change: a resize, a re-tip, a new head, a replate. A specification that says what the ring was in 2026 is less useful than one that says what it is now.
If you have none of it
Recoverable, mostly, and worth an hour. Ask the maker for the specification β if they made it, they have the numbers, and many keep the CAD file too. Look up the report number on the laboratoryβs own website and save the record. Photograph everything yourself this week. And if a piece is significant and undocumented, an appraisal will produce a description as well as a figure, which is half the point of getting one.
For an old or inherited piece, one order of operations matters: identify and document before anything is cleaned, polished or altered. Polishing removes metal and erases hallmarks permanently, and it is done by default at the end of most bench work unless you say otherwise.
Keep reading
Frequently asked questions
What jewellery paperwork should I keep?
Five things: the written specification, photographs including the underside and the marks inside the shank, any grading report with its inscription number, a dated appraisal, and a paragraph of story for anything with history. The receipt is worth keeping but is the least useful.
Why does the parcel specification for small stones matter?
Because melee under about 0.20Β ct is never individually certified in any material. If the parcel details were not recorded at purchase, no record of those stones exists anywhere β and matching a replacement years later becomes guesswork.
Where should jewellery documents be stored?
Digitally, on more than one device, and separately from the jewellery. A safe holding both the pieces and their only documentation is a single point of failure β in a theft or fire you lose the objects and the evidence together.
What if I have no paperwork at all?
Most of it is recoverable β ask the maker for the specification, look up any report number on the laboratoryβs site, and photograph everything yourself. For old or inherited pieces, identify and document before anything is cleaned or polished, since polishing erases hallmarks permanently.
Ask us for the specification β even years after you bought it.
If we made it, we have the numbers. The document costs nothing and it is the one every other situation depends on.
Leave a comment