Instructions
Things You’ll Need:

* Gold jewelry Straight pin Magnet Jewelry cleaning cloth

How to Identify Fake Gold Jewelry

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Step 1:
Wear your gold jewelry for at least a day. If you notice a mark or discoloration on your skin where you were wearing the jewelry, it is most likely fake.
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Step 2:
Lightly stick a pin into your piece of gold jewelry. If it is real gold, the pin will not break because gold is a soft metal and fakes are not.
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Step 3:
Place your gold jewelry near a magnet. Real gold is not magnetic; if your jewelry pulls toward the magnet, it is fake.
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Step 4:
Rub your gold piece with a jewelry-cleaning cloth three times. If your gold is fake, the cloth will remove the gold color off the jewelry.
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Step 5:
Take your gold jewelry to a local jewelry store if you are still unsure. They can take an X-ray and run a gold test to let you know for certain.

Tips & Warnings

* Real gold is a light shade of gold and not very shiny, so take a long look at gold jewelry before you buy it.
* Just because a piece of gold jewelry is stamped with "14k" does not make it so; do not assume it is real without checking.

Answered by vibav , an ibibo Citizen, at 5:27 AM on November 05, 2009