You know the saying ‘All that glitters is not gold’? While you may want to believe something is the real deal, things aren’t always how they appear to be.
Thankfully, if you find yourself on the search for gold, there are a few tests that can help you out.
Visual Inspection
The first thing to do to check to see if you have real gold is to look at it. There are a couple of signs that can help you separate the fake from the real deal.
Official marketing – Typically, there will be a stamp that will indicate fineness (1-999) or karat (10K, 14K, 18K, 22K, or 24K). The writing is often small so you may want to use a magnifying glass to make it easier to read. However, older pieces may not have a visible marking due to wear. Also some counterfeit pieces have a marking in order to appear authentic.
Discoloration – Check for discoloration around areas that will face the most friction including the edges. If you find places where the gold has worn off and shows a different metal underneath, the piece is probably only gold plated.
Magnet Test
While this is a rather easy test, it isn’t a fool-proof way to determine whether something is truly made of gold. You will want a strong magnet, the kind that you can find at hardware stores, in order to do this test correctly. Hold the magnet up to the item in question, if it pulls or sticks to the magnet it is a fake. Gold is not a magnetic metal, however it isn’t the only non-magnetic metal around.
Density Test
Since there are very few metals that are denser than gold, this can prove rather effective to finding out whether it is real or not. As a rule of thumb, the higher the density, the purer the gold. However, gold that has gemstones attached will not provide an accurate answer.
Weighing your piece – Typically a jeweler will do this for you for free if you do not have your own scale. You will need to have the piece weighted in grams to do so correctly.
Trust The Experts
Heritage Estate Sales has a lot of experience with handling jewelry and other gold pieces. Our website even offers a comprehensive overview of how to process our inventory and sales to ensure our clients can find exactly what they’re looking for.