How to distinguish white gold from silver: by color, brilliance, hardness, sound, oxidation, stigma - useful tips

All women love jewelry, but to walk in a really high -quality decoration, not fake, study this material.

Everyone knows, any thing that shines is not always gold. They can fake any precious metal in order to earn as much as possible. New technologies help to make fakes better and better so that they cannot be visually distinguished from the original.

Therefore, most people are looking for methods and methods that will help not only distinguish a fake at home, but also determine which metal you have in front of you. However, it is quite difficult for a simple buyer to do this.

How to distinguish white gold from silver?

In the manufacture of products from precious metals, manufacturers are guided by quality standards. If the product contains more than 10 carats of pure precious metal, then the product is considered original. If the indicator is less than specified in the standard - this is a fake.

Silver is the most affordable and popular metal that has a thousand -year history. Unlike white gold, which appeared on the market recently. Its popularity is gaining momentum every day. Outwardly, these two alloys are almost no different from each other.

Following the advice of professionals and using special test methods, you easily determine what is in front of you. The check should be done, because the price of white gold products is much higher from silver jewelry. The difference is several dozen times. The first thing to do is analyze the physical properties that differ in two metals.

By color

The color of silver is clean and white. Gold from a white alloy has a grayish, steel shade, something like platinum. If both products are polished, then the view will be the same. But the internal parts of the product where you could not get, in the process of cleaning, will differ in color.

By brilliance

Both alloys are endowed with the same reflective abilities. After polishing, they will shine almost the same. However, silver is highly subject to oxidation. External factors adversely affect the type of silver, it fades quickly enough and ceases to shine.

The difference can be seen even in the windows of a jewelry store. Those sellers who monitor the goods and want to sell it as soon as possible, they rub products every day, but there are such units.

By hardness

Both metal have different hardness. Gold 585 samples are many times harder than silver 925 samples. Silver, which was worn for a long time, will have scuffs and many scratches. White gold retains its beautiful appearance for a long time.

• To check the hardness of the metal, you need to take a metal object and put it on the product. There will be no trace on gold, the item will simply slip, and there will be damage on silver products. Do not forget, the efforts that you apply should be the same. You can also apply the folk method of checking the “tooth”. The difference will be tangible.
• If you have a decoration in the form of a ring, then a simple way to check it is to put it on it. If it bent, then you have silver in your hands. But be careful not to spoil the product. Silver is easy to deform. Gold is not so easy to bend. This method should be used only with massive jewelry, and not with a weight of 1-3 g.

By sound

This method is great for metals of different hardness. Take a silver product and throw it on a hard surface, the sound from silver will be deaf, and from gold is sonorous. When checking this method, take the products the same in weight and without stones.

By oxidation

A fairly high price of white precious metal is determined by its ability to maintain its perfect look for a long time. Silver products that have been influenced by the environment begin to darken. If you find a plaque, this is definitely not gold. Based on this, the following method of determination follows.

Using chlorine

The most effective way to distinguish two metal from one another is to drip drugs on them that contain chlorine. The cheapest will be "whiteness." On silver, a dark spot will remain from a drop of this substance, nothing will appear on gold.

Using the Law of Archimedes

White gold has a greater density than silver. To determine this, we need special scales that jewelers have. This method is effective only for products without stones and without hidden voids.

How to check:

• Weigh the product.
• Tie a thin thread to it.
• Put a container of water on the scales and wrap the scales.
• Gently lower the decoration, but make sure that it does not touch the walls and bottom.
• We take the weight from the first weighing and divide the value that you received in the liquid.

If the result is close to 10-this is silver, if from 12.5-13-in front of you is gold 585.

According to the stigma

To determine the material from which the product is made, look at the marking. The manufacturer who takes care of his reputation puts a special stamp on each product on which the test is indicated.

You can not always see a sample on the product, you should resort to the help of a magnifying glass. On the jewelry, which is many decades, you will hardly see the stigma. In this case, you should contact a master who will determine the quality and will say exactly what metal is in front of you.

If the decoration consists of several parts, then each of them should have a marking indicating authenticity. Otherwise, you have working with fake inserts in front of you. If the stigma is made unevenly or you can hardly recognize the numbers, or it is completely absent, there may also be a fake in front of you. Factories manufacturers strictly monitor the availability of marking and its quality. Apply a stigma with a laser, which guarantees the quality of the material.

There are standard numbers on each product:

• 375, 585, 750 - gold products.
• 830, 875, 925, 960 - silver products.

You should also look at the marking form, each precious metal has its own. In gold products, a marking in the shape of a square, which is combined with a rectangle. Silver products have a barrel marking.

By external signs, such jewelry is almost impossible to distinguish quickly. And new technologies have come to the point that both the color and hardness of the metal can be improved. For example, white gold can be made similar even to platinum, only covering it with Rod. And in silver, with the help of this method, the hardness and resistance to oxidation increases. In this case, checking color and shine will not give a result. To achieve one hundred percent result, you should use several methods of checking at once.

Video: The difference between gold and silver and other metals