How to Tell if It is Gold :

 

You may start with a magnet to remove any ferrous metals that contain iron. The next step is to look at your jewelry or items for stampings or hallmarks. If you still cannot determine, bring it in and we can do it for you using a standard chemical solution to identify it's purity or our XRF Analyzer.

 

 

Gold Hallmarks & Stamps: Gold comes in many colors, most common are yellow and white but you may encounter green, chocolate, rose, pink, and many other colors. Gold is alloyed mostly with copper, nickel, zinc, and silver. Different combinations of these "base metals" will create different color alloys.

 

 

8K or 333 indicates an alloy made with at least 8 parts of gold per 24 parts metal or .333% Gold Content

 

 

9K or 375 indicates an alloy made with at least 9 parts of gold per 24 parts metal or .375% Gold Content

 

 

10K or 417 indicates an alloy made with at least 8 parts of gold per 24 parts metal or .416% Gold Content

 

 

12K or 500 indicates an alloy made with at least 12 parts of gold per 24 parts metal or .50% Gold Content

 

 

14K or 583 or 585 indicates an alloy made with at least 14 parts of gold per 24 parts metal or .583% Gold Content

 

 

16K indicates an alloy made with at least 16 parts of gold per 24 parts metal or .667% Gold Content. This alloy is normally found in dental gold castings.

 

 

18K or 750 indicates an alloy made with at least 18 parts of gold per 24 parts metal or .75% Gold Content This is very commonly found in Italian made jewelry and fine yellow gold jewelry creations.

 

 

19.2K or 800 indicates an alloy made with at least 19.2 parts of gold per 24 parts metal or .80% Gold Content. This is most common in South American areas and is commonly referred to as Portugese Gold. This gold is very rich in yellow color and soft.

 

 

20K or 833 indicates an alloy made with at least 20 parts of gold per 24 parts metal or .833% Gold Content

 

 

21K or 875 indicates an alloy made with at least 21 parts of gold per 24 parts metal or .875% Gold Content

 

 

22K or 916 indicates an alloy made with at least 22 parts of gold per 24 parts metal or .916% Gold Content

 

 

23K or 950 indicates an alloy made with at least 23 parts of gold per 24 parts metal or .950% Gold Content. This is near pure gold with minor impurities.

 

 

24K or 999 or 9999 indicates an alloy made with pure gold and is at least .999% Gold. This is gold that has gone through refinement at several levels to remove all impurities.

 

 

Take Note that any other hallmarks or stamps such as: HGE, Rolled Gold Plate, Gold Filled, Plate, Plated, RGP, EP, 1/10, 1/20, 1/3, Etc. Indicate a plated or rolled gold portion and most of the item will be made from copper, nickel, and Zinc. These are commonly found in costume jewelry and watch cases. CT Gold Buyers® will purchase plated or impregnated material for a much lesser rate as it contains very small quantities of precious metals for reclaiming..

 

 

Platinum Group Metals: Platinum can be marked as Platinum, PT, PT 900, PT 950, PT 800, Platinum / Iridium, Platinum 90% Iridium 10%, Plat, etc. In addition to platinum, you may come accross palladium which is designated as PD, PALL, Palladium, etc. Further, Rhodium is commonly found in a plate layer on jewelry, giving it a bright white and durable finish.

 

 

Silver Metals: Silver can be marked as .500, .800, .830, .835,.900, 925, .935 and 950 or may also be designated as "sterling" , "coin silver", "AG", "argent" or "argentum".

 

 

You can simply determine the value of your items by converting the weight units of each item back to troy ounces, multiply that factor by the metals purity and finally, multiply that result by the current market per troy ounce price. For example, if you have 47 grams of 18k gold you would first convert grams back to troy ounces by multiplying the number of grams by .03215 and that equals 1.511 ounces, when multiplied by 75% which represents the gold purity, you are left with 1.13 troy ounces. Mulitply the end result by the metals current spot price and that is your value.

 

 

To Convert your weights and measures, use the charts found at http://www.ctgold.com/precious_metal_weight_conversions.php

 

 

Use our Calculator to determine how much we will pay you for your scrap metals