1. Weight of Gold.
Fake gold is anything less than 10 karats. Fineness and weight are the vital look ups to prove a real gold. But feels and appearance are very much easier to be identified. Just follow the tips.
2. Streak Test.
Rub the material across an unglazed porcelain tile. If it makes a black streak then it is pyrite completely, partially or gold painted. But if it is golden yellow then you have gold. Learning how to tell if gold is real you can find those tiles in your local home and garden shop or hardware store to complete the test.
3. Using Nitric Acid.
Drop small amounts of nitric acid on the material, if its real it would dissolve or change colour but the fake ones always resist this concentration. The gold should be placed on a glass in order to hold the liquid substanc from disappearing. This is one of the best methods to know if gold is real or fake.
4. Hammering Method.
Place the mineral material on a strong block or metal and smack it with a hammer. Gold is naturally malleable, so if its real it would definitely bend. Do not confuse Pyrite with gold. When your smack pyrite it would just shatter around, but gold just bend and not easily broken unless with metal chisel.
5. Using Sunlight to prove if gold is real.
Hold the assumed gold material with your fingers and expose it to sunlight at an angle of 30 to 45 degree. A real gold does not glitter in sunlight, so if it doesn know that it might be pyrite or mica and other element that has same resemblance with gold. So fake gold can be dictated not only through fineness and weight but by its glitters at the face of sunlight.
6. Fake Gold Fades or Flakes Easily.
Many women would tell you this. Fake gold does not retain that golden colour for a long time. It flakes more easily than how clothes fade. If you're trying to buy gold by this time, you can scrub the material on a metal sheet forcefully. Once you see some signs of grey or red colour, then definitely it is a fake gold. This method of how to tell if gold is real is very common for women that purchase more gold jewelries. Do not worry about breaking a gold. Real gold does break nor fracture, neither does it disintegrate when hitted or rubbed to a metallic surface.
7. Some Options to tell if Gold Jewelries are real.
Jewelries are sometimes hard to tell by just smashing or rubbing. This is where the karat method comes in. Simply, a gold less or more than 24 karat is mixed gold. Only the exact 24 karat determines a valuable and pure gold. Also observe white gold carefully which is usually mixed with nicke and becomes less malleable.
8. Using vinegar to prove fake gold and fool's gold.
Drop some content of sure vinegar on the assumed mineral, if its sure goal the material will not change colour but fake golds usually turns black or other similar colours. Apart from the malleability tests, this is the most proven way to tell if gold is real.
9. Water Gold Experiment.
A real gold sinks in large volume of water and displaces in small volumes. Place the gold material inside a water jug, if it displaces then you have a real gold but if it floats it can never be a pure gold. Although many people takes this as an old theory of science on gold, consider making at least three research after carrying out this experiment and you'll find out that water gives the accurate analytics of a real goal.
10. Alternative to Self Investigation.
One interesting way on how to tell if something is a real gold is by rubbing a face powder. Put some foundation and face powder on the back of your hand and rub the material against it.
11. Magnetic Prove.
No gold is metal, so it has no magnetic attraction. If you find out that magnet has effect toward that material then, stop daunting, you don't have a pure gold.
Just to mention but a few, there are many other ways how to tell if gold is real, and prove the whether something is pure gold or not. Many jewelries were just painted or mixed with gold but doesn't have that quality, most likely rings, if they turn your fingers green.
