Things to know while buying gold

While buying gold the most common mistakes people make for(according to the United States Gold Bureau) are:

1. Looking for cheap price.

2. Dealing with multiple dealers

3. Basing gold price with stock market

4. Owning gold stocks instead of the Physical metal

5. Buying bullions instead of Rare Certified Gold.

Okay, so you make wise decision and do not make such mistakes for buying gold. But sometimes you inherit some jewelry or get a good deal some how, from an antique sale or so - how would you know if it is real gold or not?

Recently, a friend of mine faced a case like this. The following tests were suggested:

Rub test-

Dab a bit of liquid foundation on the back of the wrist, apply a coat of powder then rub the metal in question. If a mark is seen it is likely to be real gold. But this is not a reliable test – the marks could be just irritation of rubbing.

Sink and float test

A second test was suggested. Here, in a jugful of water the piece was dropped. Some said real gold will not sink. Okay, but brass is heavy too and may sink, depending on the shape.

Acid Test

Now the third test was called upon- the Acid Test. What is an acid test? Well, here a tiny drop of acid – nitric acid had to be touched on the metal in question. If the metal is gold it will stand the test. Nothing will happen.

If it were brass there will be green marks.

If it turns kind of green then it is mixed with some alloys or may be plated.

If there are white, milky bubbles it is showing silver mix. This test is dangerous and I'd rather take it to a jewelry shop to give them the final result.

How to find out whether a piece is 22 k , or 18k or 10k?

Before that let us clear what “K” stands for. Karat with a “K” stands for the measurement of purity in a gold piece.

Gold occurs in the nature in the purest form. At that point it is most malleable and ductile. A troy ounce of gold (about the size of a sugar cube) can be hammered into a sheet that can cover a room of 10feet by 8 feet. But it is not easy to work with, and some kind of alloy is mixed so that we can make jewelry with that.

In the jewelry business the higher the karat number, higher the price tag. This is important to remember while buying gold.1 karat =4.167 % pure gold. In that respect :

24 K = 100% pure gold

22K=91%

18K=75%

14K=58.3%

10K=41%

and so on. Nothing less than 10K can be called sold as gold in USA. This is an important point to remember while buying gold jewelry and also while selling.

Now let's find if there is an easy way to find out the karat value in a piece of gold jewelry.

Here we need a touch stone. This is a small tablet of dark stone such as field stone, slate or lydite which is used for assaying precious metal alloys. It has a finely grained surface on which soft metals leave a visible mark.

We will also need a piece of gold with known karat value. Say we know for sure a piece that is 18 k gold. Now take the gold object to be tested .

We will also need a testing kit containing nitric acid for testing lower karat value gold or aqua regia to test higher karat value gold . Aqua regia is mixture of three parts hydrochloric acid and one part nitric acid. Aqua regia is only used for high karat gold and platinum.

The gold object to be tested is rubbed on the stone to leave a streak. Now make a line with the piece with known karat a little farther away from the previous streak.. Both marks have to be flooded with the acid now and the results to be observed.

If the sample changes color exactly like the known karat metal streak, at the same rate, then we can say that they are of the same karat value gold.

Even though these test kits are available in many jewelry stores I'd rather have them do the test because these are dangerous acids. It is better that professionals handle them with care and give me the result.

Jewelry store professionals are usually nice about that, at least that is my experience even though I was not buying gold from them all the time.

Do you know how to find out real jade from the fake one? Then after Things to know while buying gold visit Jade-Real or Fake site

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