Test and confirm that your purchases are indeed silver, gold and platinum. Fake stuff is definitely out there, sometimes even sold unknowingly. Short of sending it to a lab, this will give you the peace of mind when buying precious metals. Sold with complete instructions. Works as a yes/no test for silver, platinum and most common purities of gold. Comes with a ceramic test stone which is useful for testing gold pieces that you don't want to damage like Krugerrands.
Auction is a kit of 6 different colour-coded 10ml test solutions, a ceramic test stone, and full instructions, all contained in a single screw-top plastic container. The test solutions contain concentrated acids and other potentially harmful chemicals. Acid is corrosive and care should be taken when using. Keep out of reach of children. If spilt on skin, wash immediately under running water. Avoid breathing fumes, eye contact and direct contact with skin or ingestion.
To properly ascertain that an item is not plated, you will usually need to file a groove in the item so the acids can penetrate below the plating. No single test can be taken as absolute confirmation, so it is recommended you use at least 1 other test such as listed in our FAQ below. Chemicals can and do lose their effectiveness with time. The stronger acids such as the 20k test solution may lose their effectiveness after about a year. Individual replacement solutions are available at approx R90 each.
The following is an example of what can happen when you don't test your purchases:
Items will be delivered for collection at your nearest post office counter.
Items can be combined from different auctions at highest shipping cost to save on postage. Add 2% of value of additional items to cover insurance.
Courier service is available. You may also arrange your own courier and insurance.
Parcels will be dispatched within 3 working days AFTER payment has been received.
If full payment is not made within 3 working days, a negative rating may be given and 5 % penalty fee may be added to total amount due.
Collections can be arranged in Port Elizabeth, waiving the postage.
Please visit our other listings:
http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/seller/1994136/fine999
FAQ
How else can I test gold/silver
- Commercially gold and silver can be assayed non-destuctively using a small handheld x-ray device. As these cost over R160,000, they are not commonly available to the man-on-the street.
- Silver can be accurately assayed by wet chemical titration, and gold is accurately assayed by fire assay
- You can buy a good jewelers scale to weigh an item against the expected weight
- Feel and intuition. If you handle gold and silver a lot, you will intuitively learn it's density, the sound it makes when dropped, and it's heat conductivity
- You can measure the specific gravity of gold which is extremely dense, more than even lead.
- Learn to read the hallmarks
What is 9k, 14k, 22k (karat) gold?
Gold is usually alloyed with other metals such as copper. It's purity is expressed as a fraction of 24. Thus 24 karat/carat gold is pure gold, 9k gold is 9/24ths or 37.5% gold, and 14k gold is 14/24ths gold.
How can I test silver myself?
There are a number of tests you can do depending on the form and what's at hand:
Pass a magnet over the silver. It should not be attracted to the magnet.
File a small V in your silver. It should be shiny inside too, else it could be plated.
Flatten a small piece with a hammer. Silver is quite soft and malleable.
Use an Ohm-meter. Silver is highly conductive.
Silver melts at a lower temperature than Cupronickel.
Pure silver is very shiny (unless tarnished).
A silver test solution can differentiate between silver, gold and copper alloys. Contact us to put more on auction.
Feel and intuition. If you handle silver a lot, you will intuitively learn it's density, the sound it makes when dropped, and it's heat conductivity. Walk around with a silver coin in your pocket for a month.
Can this distinguish between different purities of silver?
To a degree, yes. The purer the silver, the stronger the colour change with the test solution. You will learn to tell this with experience. Full details on this will be included with your purchase.
Please visit our other listings at:
http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/seller/1994136/fine999
