Often you have to face the fact that instead of a gold chain or a gold ring you can buy a piece of cheap material covered with gilding, and pay at the same time for the precious metal. Needless to say, such an incident will be very unpleasant and will be remembered for a long time? To avoid this, you must always know several ways how you can distinguish gold from forgery, while not resorting to the help of any specialists, because you yourself still trust more. Of course, it should be noted immediately that the most accurate results can be reported to you exclusively by a specialist who knows all the subtleties and nuances of jewelry business, but you yourself can help yourself a little by making a few small experiments before buying a jewelry that will allow you to avoid buying a counterfeit. So let's look at some ways of how to distinguish gold from what it is not.
How to distinguish real gold?
Certification. Of course, if you buy a gold product in a large, trustworthy store and you get a certificate when you buy it, then the chance to get a fake is small enough, although it is possible, because even large companies often trade for high-quality gilding for gold . But still, by checking the certificate and the tag, you can be relatively calm.
Try. The second method by which you can learn about the authenticity of gold is to test the sample. Since gold is a soft metal, all other ornaments made from it contain impurities of other metals. The numbers indicated on the sample indicate the percentage of gold contained in the product. If you notice that the sample icon is a bit blurry and you can not clearly read the numbers, then do not buy such a product.
Ringing. But since all of the above has long been learned to forge, it is necessary to know and several other experimental methods of how to distinguish gold from jewelry. And the first of them is ringing. If you drop gold, it will emit a characteristic "crystal" ringing, very melodic. Other metals have no such sound.
Magnet. Another method is a magnet. Gold does not attract them. But, it is worth noting that some other metals, namely aluminum, copper and bronze, also do not react to a magnet, and in gold forgeries they can be used.
Iodine. An extremely convenient way of distinguishing gold from metal is to drop a little iodine on the product and wait a couple of minutes. If there is a trace of iodine, it is a fake. However, if this is a product with high-quality gilding, then there will be no trace, although the decoration is not entirely gold.
Vinegar. Also an interesting method, how to distinguish gold from gilding is to put the product in vinegar essence. Gold in the vinegar does not darken, but a fake or gilded with a thin layer of jewelry - yes.
Shadow and light. Well, the last thing - gold does not change its color depending on the lighting. It will be the same and if you look at it in the light, and if you look in the shade.