How Can You Tell The Difference In The Purity Of Gold?

1. 63

   PhoenixVposted 4 years ago

   How Can You Tell The Difference In The Purity Of Gold?
   
   How can you tell if your coin or jewelry is really 24K, 22K, 18K or just 14K? What is the usual purity of gold nuggets or gold dust?

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2. 42

   Borsiaposted 4 years ago

   14k is going to be much harder than purer forms and the same is somewhat true of 18k but you need chemical analysis to tell 22k from 24k because.
   If you are buying gold from anyone other than a credible seller don't trust thinks like numbers stamped in the metal. It is just as easy to stamp "24k" as it is to stamp "14k" and fakery is very common.
   There are scratch tests, where you rub the piece on very fine abrasive then test with acid, but I don't know if they could tell the difference between say 18k and 22k, or even 24k. In theory the acid should react to anything but pure gold.
   *note; I am NOT an expert by any means and this is just what I've seen over the years.

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3. 0

   iCrystalWriterposted 4 years ago

   Some pawn shops, jewelry stores or gold refineries etc will do an analysis of the gold in an item/piece for free, if you take your item/piece to them and ask them to tell you how much they are likely to pay for it.
   
   You may go to a store, shop or refinery near you if there are any, and you may also want to do this too with those that will do the analysis for you why you wait too. Alternatively you can also use a jewelry appraiser who can also do the analysis for you too, even though this is a paid service, the choice is yours.
   
   You need such an analysis (test) to know the actual gold content (that is, 14K, 18K etc) of any item or piece.
   
   Gold nuggets usually have up to 20.5K to 22K of gold content/purity, this may vary in some other countries or locations.
   
   The gold content of an item can be determined by carrying out a gold analysis or test on the item.

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