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How to Physically Check for 24K Gold

Karatage is the measure of gold's purity, with 24 karats indicating 100 percent pure gold. However, because pure gold is comparatively soft, most items contain small quantities of other metals to improve their strength and durability, which makes finding items that are 24K gold rare. If you do, they will likely be from China or the Middle East, and almost certainly not hallmarked. But, there are ways to physically check for 24K gold.

Things You'll Need

Metal pin
Gold testing kit
Electronic gold tester

Instructions

- 1
  Inspect the item closely. Pure gold has a yellow, buttery color. If possible, scrape the object with the point of a pin. The point should sink in without any sense of jarring. Neither of these tests are scientific or definitive, but they are both strong pointers toward a very high karatage.
- 2
  Assay the item with a gold testing kit. A kit usually consists of a box of phials, each containing acid of a different strength. To perform the test, simply apply a droplet of the strongest acid to the object; if there is no reaction, it has passed the test.
- 3
  Test the item with an electronic gold tester to be absolutely certain that it is 24k gold.

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