If you’ve ever started to inspect the gold bracelet you wear or your grandmother’s ring you inherited and wondered “is this real gold?” you’ve come to the right place. Learn how to identify real gold – through hallmarks, the gold karat chart, the millesimal system, reliable at-home tests, and last but not least, know when to hang it up and take your pieces to a reputable jeweler like Schwarzschild Jewelers as your safest bet to know whether your gold is real or not.
Start With Hallmarks: The Most Reliable At-Home Indicator
Did you know there are two systems for engraving gold that define its purity? You may have seen these markings but not known what they meant. The Karat system is a scale based on twenty-four parts (yes, like the Bruno Mars song where 24K is the symbol of the highest luxury) while the millesimal fineness scale measures parts per thousand. (Ex. the engraving 750 means 750 of 1,000 parts is pure gold = 75% real gold). These hallmarks are usually placed inconspicuously on the piece, which is why they’re also known as the magnifying glass test. Legally speaking, anything under 10k, or less than 41% pure gold, cannot be marketed as real gold, but this doesn’t stop manufacturers from putting anything they like. If your gold has any markings other than those listed below, bring your pieces to one of our locations and let us take a look.
Other Signs to Look for at Home
Sometimes you’ll see engravings other than the Karat or millesimal fineness hallmarks, and these are a dead giveaway that your piece is not real gold. For example, anything with a letter code that includes “GP” or “GF” means your piece is gold-plated or gold-filled and therefore not real gold. Other attempts you can make in how to identify gold is whether or not you see any skin discoloration after handling it. Gold is notoriously nonreactive, so authentic gold jewelry will never turn your fingers, wrist, or neck green. Another way is the magnet test. Simply put, gold is not magnetic; therefore, the piece you are wondering about has no response to a magnetic pull.
The Most Reliable Method: Bring It to an Expert
Some internet hacks will have you weighing gold in water to measure its density or applying a few drops of vinegar to check for authenticity – before you bring out the scale or stink up your house, just bring the pieces you’re curious about to the experts at Schwarzschild and let us evaluate them. Whether it be a family heirloom, estate sale find, or something you just bought for yourself, under their trained eye, the proper tests will be administered to identify whether or not you have a piece of authentic gold jewelry on your hands, pun intended. Perhaps you’re in the market for an authentic piece of gold jewelry; we can help with that, too. Come to our location nearest you, Richmond, Charlottesville, and Midlothian, and browse our gold jewelry collection – no guesswork required!