Nothing calms the soul like a long-awaited shopping trip, and this process is doubly pleasant if a long-awaited gold jewelry is purchased, and what can please the eye (regardless of the gender of its owner) is more than the luster of a noble metal, now in full owned by a happy buyer?
Shine and poverty of jewelry stores
However, gold is different, and in order for an expensive purchase to continue to please its owner, you need to know how to distinguish a real precious metal from a fake that no jeweler can buy even as scrap.
An indicator of the quality of gold products is deservedly considered a test. The modern precious metals market is subject to seasonal and economic fluctuations, but by some miracle the number of jewelry stores and stores is constantly growing. This happens because many outlets, intentionally or not, offer their customers products from low-quality alloys, and even those that, although they are equal in price to gold, are not.
It's not about color, but about impurities
Contrary to popular belief, the gold content in jewelry cannot be determined by its color, even approximately. In the USSR, there was a practice according to which jewelry from a precious alloy of the same sample had the same shade, however, at the moment, products identical in content to the title metals can have completely different colors. This is due to the fact that the color of the earrings or rings is determined by the ligature - impurities that are added in order to make the jewelry more suitable for use.
Pure gold (the so-called 1000th test, is almost never found in nature, and the technology of its production is extremely complicated, therefore more often this means the metal of the 999th test) is very soft and deforms even with a slight mechanical impact. However, due to the ligature added during melting (it can vary in composition, therefore it gives different colors to jewelry), jewelry made of precious metals becomes harder and retain their shape much better.
Domestic tests
In Russia and in most European countries, along with karat, a trial system for evaluating the share of gold in the metal part of jewelry is operating. So, for example, the 585th test means that the title metal in this product is slightly more than half - 58.5%. Such a decoration is less susceptible to mechanical stress and deformation, but is also valued lower.
Gold items having a test below 375 (the minimum accepted in Russia for jewelry) go into the category of jewelry, filling the niche of its upper price range. In addition to the 375th and 585th in Russia, samples 500, 583, 750, 958, 996 and 999.9 were also taken. Due to the technological complexity of purification of gold from impurities, the purest alloy is often referred to as the 990th breakdown, but often in such a precious metal product there may be slightly more than indicated on the sample.
As we can see, the 875th mark in the list does not appear, but does this mean that the sample decorating the ring 875 automatically makes it a counterfeit product? Let's get it right.
The product is sample 875 - what is it? A fake or just a custom alloy?
In order not to run into jewelry with a bad history, it is better not to be seduced by low prices in pawnshops, but to go to a well-known jewelry store or an online store that cares about its reputation. But we will not go into such details. Suppose you have a piece of jewelry in your hands that says it is made of 875 gold. We understand everything in detail.
We arm ourselves with a magnifying glass and carefully consider the sample. If it is greased or not clearly printed, it is better not to pay attention to such a product. If the quality of the filling is not in doubt, we proceed to the next step - we ask the seller for documents for jewelry and carefully study them. The fact is that the product can be made of silver, and gold (or a precious material similar to it is never precious) can be only the top coating. The silver used in jewelry production may well have a test of 875 - the price per gram of such a product should be appropriate. If you are satisfied with this alignment at the declared value, you can get a wallet, if not, we will understand further.
Overseas guest
In the countries of the Arab world and the Persian Gulf, on the contrary, the most popular gold products are those made from precious metals of higher grades - it is quite possible to buy a brooch from 990 gold there if you can avoid a heart attack in the process of determining the price. To find out about our potential property of a foreign guest, we continue to study the jewelry on which sample 875 is indicated. What is this? Instead of the number “875” stands “21K”! Without panic, gentlemen, the fact is that the system for evaluating the purity of precious alloys adopted in our country is not the only one. In addition to it, there is the so-called carat system - in it the gold of the 1000th test is called 24-carat. Through simple arithmetic calculations, we find out that a 21-carat alloy (this is exactly what this brand means) is 875 gold - it will have the appropriate price, but the extreme cheapness should alert you - they also engage in fake jewelry abroad.
And if the thing is happening in Russia?
Do you buy jewelry in the Russian Federation, in a domestic store, but there is no 875 sample on the product? What is it? And here, without panic - modern legislation allows for the absence of a mark with a breakdown on the domestic scale in the event that the label of another calculating system on the product is well read. In addition to the inscription “21K” on the jewelry, it can be indicated, for example, that it contains 84 precious metal spools - in this system, the 1000th sample corresponds to 96 spools, so that a product with such characteristics is also seven-eighths of pure gold.
To the question of cost
You looked at the price of gold on the stock exchange, and in the store it is lower, although it says that sample 875. What is it? Fake? And then, without panic - in the vast majority of cases, the price of precious metal, which the average Internet user can easily recognize - is the cost of one gram of pure (that is, the 1000th sample) of gold. At the time of writing, she was equal to 1413.08 rubles. per gram. This means that if there is 875 samples on the product, the price per gram should be at least seven-eighths of this amount. But there is still payment for the work of a jeweler, and taxes, and the seller himself must also pass something. Consider all this, and then the risk of running into a fake will be much lower: gold is too expensive metal, products from it simply can not be sold for nothing.