Tamer Elgamil ·
A household clearing out inherited gold is selling for the first time after years of only buying. Four kinds of buyer are waiting, and each of them deducts something different.
Old or unwanted gold in Egypt has no single selling price. It has four kinds of buyer, and each one prices it by what they intend to do with it next.
| Channel | What it pays close to | What it typically deducts |
|---|---|---|
| The original shop or another retail jeweller | The day's gram price for the karat, before making charge | Stones out and the piece cleaned first, a waste allowance for reshaping, and the making charge you already paid |
| A kasr dealer | Metal value on plain, unbranded pieces | Similar stone and waste deductions, and often less for large ornamental pieces carrying heavy workmanship |
| A bullion house | The international benchmark, for bars or coins of certified purity | Little or nothing on certified bars from its own stock, but it will usually not take worked jewellery at bullion pricing at all |
| A gold fund | The fund's own daily gold-linked valuation | A redemption fee, and physical delivery only above a set minimum weight |
A belief resurfaces every time someone sells gold back: that the state takes a cut on resale. Egypt's General Division for Gold and Jewellery has publicly denied it, saying there is "no such thing as a resale tax" and that no decision or law creates one.
What a seller actually meets is the gap between a dealer's selling price and buying price, plus what the division described as a hedge margin against swings in local and global markets. It behaves a little like the spread at a bureau de change. That distinction is useful at the counter. If a buyer explains a deduction to you as a government tax on resale, that is not what it is.
Selling to a retail jeweller means the buyer re-tests the karat rather than trusting your invoice. Stones come out and are set aside. The piece is cleaned. Only then does it go on the scale. A waste allowance then comes off the top, for metal assumed lost in any future reshaping.
The making charge you paid originally does not return. It bought design and labour that cannot be resold. Not every stone is deducted, either. Some are removed and excluded outright. Others are judged to carry resale value of their own and are handled separately. Ask which of yours falls where before the weighing starts.
Dedicated kasr dealers exist for this trade and cluster in known districts, from Khan el-Khalili in Cairo to long-established goldsmith streets in Giza and Alexandria. A kasr dealer suits plain, unbranded pieces bought for their metal. A single large ornamental item is different. A heavy chain with a lot of workmanship loses more of its original price to the making-charge deduction, whoever buys it.
Dealers in investment-grade bars and coins price much closer to the international benchmark, because a certified bar never carried a making charge or a design cost in the first place. The metal is almost the whole price.
This route matters mainly if what you hold is already that kind of product: a hallmarked bar, or a recognised coin. Worked jewellery is generally not something a bullion dealer buys at bullion pricing, because it is not the standardised product the business is built on.
Some households hold gold that was never physical at all. It is a certificate in an Egyptian gold fund, bought through a bank or a brokerage app.
One such fund, AZ Gold, is run jointly by Azimut Egypt and Evolve Holding. A holder can redeem in cash on a trading day, or take delivery of physical bars once the position is worth the equivalent of 50 grams. Both exits carry a fee. The published cash-redemption fee tapers with how long the certificate has been held. It runs up to 3.5 percent inside the first year, up to 2.4 percent after one year, and up to 1.2 percent after two. After three years it is nothing. Redeeming as physical gold has been published at up to 5.5 percent.
It is a genuinely different exit from the other three. No stones to remove and no karat to re-test, but a fee and a minimum weight stand between the certificate and either cash or metal in your hand.
Getting more than one quote is the advice every Egyptian selling guide repeats, and it matters because none of the deductions above are standardised between dealers.
Bring the original invoice and any hallmark details. Documentation can shorten or soften the re-testing a buyer insists on, which is the practical reason to keep receipts from the day you buy.
The sell-back price page shows the daily gram all of these deductions are applied against. The calculator turns your weight into a pre-deduction estimate. The gold price by karat page carries the buying side of the same market.
A bullion house, but only for investment-grade bars or coins, not worked jewellery. For jewellery the realistic comparison is between the original shop and a kasr dealer, and both apply deductions a bullion buyer does not.
Egypt's General Division for Gold and Jewellery has said there is no such thing as a resale tax and no law creating one. What you meet is the dealer's buy-sell price gap plus a hedge margin.
In one Egyptian fund, physical delivery becomes available once the holding is worth the equivalent of 50 grams, with a published fee of up to 5.5 percent. Cash redemption is available on trading days at a fee that falls the longer the certificate is held.
It can shorten the process and reduce disputes over karat, because a dated invoice stating weight and karat gives the buyer less to re-establish from scratch.