Finance Press - Daily financial articles from world

With gold prices climbing to all time highs, it's more important than ever to make sure that the jewelry you are buying is made of real gold. And this task can be even more complicated when evaluating white gold jewelry. Taking your gold jewelry to a local jewelry store is the best way to know your gold is legit. Luckily, there are several ways of checking yourself that the jewelry is solid gold.

With gold prices climbing to all time highs, it's more important than ever to make sure that the jewelry you are buying is made of real gold. And this task can be even more complicated when evaluating white gold jewelry. Taking your gold jewelry to a local jewelry store is the best way to know your gold is legit. Luckily, there are several ways of checking yourself that the jewelry is solid gold.

The first way of checking is known as the acid method. When a jeweler tests gold, they test with very specific acids of certain strength, and the stronger the acid is, the better it's able to dissolve away at the higher karat grades of gold. Since you're not able to measure something that accurately, you can merely use nitric acid. First make a minor scratch on the jewelry with a file in an area won't be too visible. Then using a dropper, apply a couple drops of nitric acid. If the jewelry is simply plated, the base metal underneath will change color or bubble as it's dissolved by the acid. If it's made of gold, there will be no chemical reaction. For gold chains, it's more convenient to test on the clasp at the end of the chain.

The second approach is by visual and weight inspection. Simply hold it in your hand and feel it's weight. If it feels heavy, there's a good chance it's gold. Silver alloys weigh approximately 70% that of gold, so if it's gold plated silver, it will be a noticeable difference. Tungsten on the other hand is nearly the same weight of 14K gold , however tungsten is a darker gray metal which should be easy to notice.

The final method is to check the jewelry carefully while looking for stamps or hallmarks. By law, gold jewelry must be stamped with a karat grade, or a purity mark. Karat grades commonly used are 10K, 14K, 18K, etc. Purity is a 3-digit number calculated by the karat divided by 24, since pure gold is 24 karat gold . And then you just multiply by 100. So 14K is 14 divided by 24 times 100, which is 583 (or sometimes written as 585). Another example would be 18 karat gold which is 750.

Tips: Be cautious when buying from Craigslist . If you decide to buy something from a stranger, ask them to meet you at a jewelry store so the jeweler can inspect the item in question. Be sure to look for a second stamp on the jewelry next to the karat grade. This is from the actual manufacturer of the jewelry, also called a hallmark. Most gold jewelry that has a hallmark can be traced back to it's original maker, so you should feel more confident about purchasing it.

< Prev		Next >