How to tell if a silver chain is real with simple tests.
Is the gold chain you are about to buy really made of gold?Can you tell if a gold chain is fake?We are going to show you how to spot fake gold chains.
Gold plated fake gold chains are not made of solid gold.The jewelry is covered with a thin layer of gold to make it look like a real gold piece.
Similar to gold-plated items, these chains are made of non-gold metals, but instead of plated with gold, they are wrapped in a thin sheet of it, which is attached to the core metal under high temperature.
In the U.S., jewelry that is less than 10 karats pure cannot be sold as gold.
You can think of it as a measure of purity.The amount of gold and other metals in the piece.
It is likely that the piece you find is made of solid gold.
A gold percentage of 58.3% is represented by a stamp that reads 583 or 585, which corresponds to a gold purity of 14 karats.
Simply divide the numbers by 0.024 to convert them to gold.A gold karatage of 18K is indicated by a marking of 750.
In contrast to solid gold pieces, gold-filled chains have a few additional letters after the karat/purity mark.
Many gold-filled chains are marked with stamps such as GP, GEP, R GP and H GP.
A chain with a marking of 14K GP is actually gold plated, and the karat number indicates the purity of the plating, not the whole piece.
This does not guarantee that the piece is solid gold, even if a gold chain is stamped with a karat number without any additional letters.Some jewelry vendors sell items that are not marked.
One of the most reliable ways to find out how much gold is in jewelry is by testing it with nitric acid.
You can take your gold chain to a jeweler for a test, who will take a small sample of the alloy the chain is made of by scratching the piece on a testing stone.
After applying nitric acid to the scratch mark, the jeweler will be able to determine how much gold is in the material.
Acid testing can be done at home.All you have to do is buy a gold testing kit and follow the instructions.The testing procedure is the same as described.You can find a selection of gold testing kits here.
If a chain is likely to be made of gold, it can be determined by the color of the chain.It is unlikely that a yellow chain will be made of pure gold.
24-karat gold is too soft to be used to make an entire piece of jewelry.
If a gold chain has a color that is too close to gold, this is the first sign that the piece might be plated.
It is very likely that you are dealing with a gold-filled piece if the piece has a 24K mark but the price is too low.This last point is applicable to any jewelry that is too cheap for its stated karat.
If there are any spots where the gold has worn off and the underlying metal is visible, look closely.You should be able to see the metallic color of the item if it is scratched.
Since gold is not magnetic, a gold chain shouldn't be attracted to the magnet.It means that it contains other metals.