How to tell if a ring is real gold?

Some of the relevant and trustworthy ways to test the gold ring you can find online are simple and doable at your home. The most common are mechanical, visual, and chemical ones. Let’s see.

Visual Test

The simple markings found on the ring’s inner part can justify the gold quality since they are not that easy to fake and forge. Therefore, you can always rely on the official gold markings. All you need to do is look for it on the inside of the ring.

Remember that numerous markings can show you the quality of gold. I will give you a quick review of which stamps you can find and what they mean.

Pure gold features 99% of this precious metal or 999 parts of pure gold of a total of 1000. Therefore, you are off the hook and have the best gold quality ring if your ring has the mark 999.

If you find a stamp 417, the ring contains 41.7% pure gold, meaning you have a 10K gold ring. It is still a gold ring, but 53.8% of the metals it contains are alloy.

Test With A Magnet

One of the gold’s primary characteristics is that it is not magnetic. So, you only need a piece of magnet to determine if the ring in your possession is made of this precious metal or not. If the gold ring is pure 24K gold, you can’t attract it with a magnet.

That is not just the case with the ring only, but you can test all the jewelry or coins you doubt. In case your band is attracted to the magnet, it is not pure gold. Usually, it contains other alloys or is a gold-plated ring.

Nitric Acid Test

Although it can damage your golden ring, the nitric acid method is highly reliable and trustworthy. So, let’s see how it works.

You need to apply a specific acid to the scratched part of the ring. To do so, the best option is to scrape the inside of the ring. That way, any possible damage won’t be visible. When you add the acid to the scratch, you should observe if there are any changes.

The real gold won’t react to the acid. So, you can be sure you have a real gold ring if there are no changes. Otherwise, there is a possibility that the ring you have is less karat gold than 24K or is not gold at all.

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