How To Spot Fake Gold Jewelry

Knowing how to spot fake gold jewelry can come in handy for a number of reasons. If you can spot fake gold jewelry, it may help prevent you from wasting money on it, and it can also help you sort through your old jewelry to know what is and is not valuable. You don't need a bunch of special tools to spot fake gold jewelry, just knowledge of a few tell tale characteristics of real and fake gold. 

To spot fake gold jewelry you will need:

• Magnet
• Magnifying glass

1. Wear the gold jewelry in question. Wearing fake jewelry is one of the easiest ways to spot fake gold jewelry because fake jewelry will often discolor your skin or cause a skin irritation when you wear it. 
2. Examine the gold jewelry in question very carefully. Real gold isn't extremely shiny, it has more of a muted, yellow hue and although it will have a mild sheen to it's appearance, it won't be a high shine, like brass or metal plating. 
3. Lay the jewelry out on a flat surface. Then, hold a magnet above the jewelry. Real gold is not magnetic, so if the jewelry is magnetic, it isn't real.
4. Look for a karat marking with a magnifying glass. Real gold jewelry will be marked with 24k, 18k, 14k or 10k to indicate the percentage of gold in the item. If the jewelry is marked with EP or GP, the item is gold plated and not solid gold. On necklaces and bracelets this marking should be near the clasp, and on rings it should be on the inside band.