How to check gold at home?

Gold is one of the most popular precious metals for jewelry: earrings, rings, chains, crosses and brooches and many other products are made from this material. His dear and pleasant shine is loved by both men and women. There is a huge assortment of jewelry in jewelry stores, but sometimes we are asking ourselves about the quality of this alloy, as nowadays scammers often forge this noble metal. And buy a fake instead of expensive jewelry do not want anyone. Therefore, it will not be out of place to learn how to check gold at home.

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What is it - real gold?

In pure form, gold is a soft and pliable metal, which can not be used by jewelers to make jewelry. In order to strengthen gold, it includes some additives:

• Copper.
• Bronze.
• Silver.
• Cadmium.
• Platinum.
• Nickel.
• Brass.

Important! Depending on the additives used in the alloy, white, yellow and red gold are distinguished.

Types of gold

Three types of metal shine are distinguished according to the color characteristic:

1. Yellow gold is considered a classic variant - its color is caused by the following components: gold, silver and copper, which are present in the alloy in equal parts.
2. Red metal used for making cutlery and church utensils. This alloy is the cheapest, since copper predominates in its composition.
3. White gold has recently become fashionable. A solid steel shine is achieved through the addition of platinum, but the cost of such products is higher.

Gold sample

It is common knowledge that all the precious products are branded, confirming its authenticity and quality. In addition, each combination of figures corresponds to a certain percentage of gold in the alloy. How to learn a sample of gold at home and what are its meanings?

Important! You can examine the sample on the product if you carefully examine the surface of the gold ornament. If it is a ring, it is often located inside, and if the earrings are on their shackle. Use the magnifying glass to increase the brand.

Value of the gold sample:

• 999. This designation indicates a pure metal without any impurities. The product with such a sample does not exist, but it is quite possible to buy ingots with such a test in the bank. Their weight begins with one gram.
• 750. Not often there are such products, but such a test indicates about 75% of the content in the composition of gold.
• 585 and 583 are the most frequent alloys used in the manufacture of gold jewelry. That is, in such products the share of precious metal is slightly higher than 50%.
• 375. A gold with such a low sample is used to make wristwatches, inlays and finishes of various items, as well as antiques. Such material is reliable and low cost.

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Not everything is gold that shines

After buying jewelry, to check gold at home still makes sense, because with the aim of making money, unscrupulous producers can go for deliberate deception. And what is offensive, sometimes checking bodies can be at the same time, or even not to guess about a fake, since the manufacturer can only send a qualitative element of the product for analysis. And cases with fakes can be found a huge number.

Therefore, we want to understand how to learn gold or not at home.

First, let's look at the fakes that gold scammers can give out:

1. Tungsten. It is this metal that is trying to give out for a precious material, since its density is similar to gold and is 19.3 g / cm3.The process consists in the following: from tungsten a blank is created, which is then simply covered with gilding. Expand fraud is possible if you drill a hole in the product through which you can see what is inside.
2. Pyrite. It has a pleasant shine of yellow color.
3. Copper. The cheapest and simplest version of deception. A thin gold coating is applied to the copper product.
4. Tompak. Known and cunning imitator of yellow metal. With a visual inspection to expose such a fake will not be able to even an experienced jeweler, so this alloy looks like gold. It consists of: copper 90% and zinc 10%, and additional impurities allow you to easily change the color of the metal.

There are many methods to check gold at home for authenticity, which we will discuss further.

Visual inspection of jewelry

The simplest and most important way is visual analysis of jewelry when buying:

1. Inspect the gold product from all sides.
2. Find the location of the sample, study it, consider a combination of numbers and other symbols indicative of quality.
3. In addition to the sample, the gold jewelry must be sealed and have a tag with the information.
4. Pay attention to polishing - high-quality decoration will shine brightly and shine. And the color of the product will be monophonic.
5. If the jewelery is with precious stones, then they must be firmly secured.
6. The product should not have any scratches, cracks, stains. Spray should be bright, uniform - both on the front side of the decoration, and with the purl.

Other ways how to check metal for gold at home, you can try out on arrival home.

Determination of real gold by the sound of

This method, how to check the quality of gold at home, is known from ancient times. In the olden days, the authenticity of gold coins was checked so often. In order to find out is not a fake in front of you, throw the product on a flat and hard floor. The sound of jewelry made of real gold is like a crystal ringing. A pure and ringing sound will confirm the authenticity of the product.

Important! This method suits you in the event that you have an absolute hearing. And one more disadvantage of the method is the impossibility to evaluate the quality of gold in chains and bracelets.

Iodine - indicator of authenticity

How to check gold at home for authenticity with iodine? Very simply, especially since this substance is available in every home:

1. For the experiment, arm yourself with a bottle of iodine, a cotton swab and a gold product.
2. It is best to wipe the surface of the surface first, then even in an inconspicuous place, it can be done with fine sandpaper.
3. Dip the wand into iodine and apply liquid to the treated surface.
4. Wait for a while.

Important! If a dark spot appears at the point of contact between gold and iodine, then it means that the metal is precious. None of the metals react with iodine except gold.

After the experiment, remove the speck by wiping it with a cloth dampened in Coca-Cola.

Vinegar and gold

If you do not have iodine at home, you can apply vinegar. How to check gold at home for authenticity with vinegar? The procedure is as simple as in the previous case. Put the gold product in a container of vinegar and wait for a while.

Important! Gold under the influence of acetic acid does not darken and does not change color.

Magnet and plaque for authenticity determination

You can check gold at home using a magnet. Gold is not attracted to it, but if the decoration is made of a different metal, it will easily stick.

Lapis pencil is an antiseptic, active ingredient of which is silver nitrate. You can buy the medicine in the nearest pharmacy. What do we have to do? First, soak the gold dress with plain water, and then draw a pencil over it with a pencil. If the metal remained pure, gold is present, and if the reaction has begun, imitation.

Reaction to the sun

On a sunny and clear day, you can conduct the following experiment:

1. First, take the gold thing in your hands and carefully look at it in the shade.
2. Then transfer the product to sunlight.

And now include our observation!

Important! Real gold, both in the shade and in the sunlight, will have the same color and brilliance, unlike fakes that darken in the shade.

Another gold product

will help to identify the fake How to check gold at home using another decoration? The most important thing is that its quality is confirmed and you were 100% sure of it. An old family jewel is perfect. Then we proceed as follows: we take both products and conduct them two lines on a rigid surface.

Important! The resulting prints should be as similar as possible, but if the tracks are significantly different from each other, then it's a fake.

Ceramic coating will help identify the fake

Almost the same way you can analyze the traces of a gold product on ceramics. Draw the product over the unglazed surface and examine the imprint. Golden color - excellent, but gray indicates a fake of pyrite.

Important! But note, from this impact on real gold, there are likely to be scratches

Although, just scratches will also help to identify a low-quality imitation. Thanks to this mechanical action, you can look under the top layer of gilding and find out if there is another metal beneath it.

Ancient way with bread

In the old days, there was no sample on gold, no iodine at hand. But there were ways to determine the authenticity of the precious metal. One of these is a crumb of black bread. How to learn gold or not at home by such an unusual method?

The procedure is as follows:

1. We connect a small volume of water with bread crumb.
2. Thoroughly knead until a homogeneous mush.
3. Put the golden thing in the mixture and carefully weave it.
4. We leave everything in this form and wait for complete drying.
5. Dry product break and remove gold product

Important! If the metal has no trace, then the gold is of excellent quality. And if the product showed signs of oxidation, then you, unfortunately, are a fake.

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Some advice from

It's not difficult to check gold at home. But it's better to avoid this by following these rules:

1. To buy gold jewelry is best in specialized jewelry stores, and not in modest and incomprehensible benches. In addition to the positive reputation, large stores will provide you with quality documents for the products.
2. Be sure to perform a visual inspection before buying. After the first rapture from the beauty of the decoration, switch to a close analysis. Do not hesitate and consider the product carefully.
3. Try to compare the chosen product with a gold ring, the quality of which you have no doubt. Such visual analysis will also help to calculate a fake.

Well, no one forbids you to bring a small magnet or a pencil with you to the store.

Now you know how to determine gold at home for authenticity. Most importantly - these methods are simple and convenient, and their list is quite large. You can choose the most suitable for you, or try several at once.