How to test gold with iodine?

Today, gold remains one of the most valuable metals on the market, which is why the number of cases of sale of counterfeit jewelry is increasing daily. Fortunately, modern technologies make it possible to determine the authenticity of a particular gold product very accurately and quickly. However, there are situations when there is no time or opportunity to go to a special service, then you can determine the authenticity of gold and at home.

In fact, most of the methods will allow you to fairly accurately determine whether the gold in front of you is real or is it a fake. This will save you both time and money. One such way is iodine test. With such a check, it affects the chemical compounds of the product and produces a reaction.

It is very convenient to test gold with iodine, since only this metal enters into such a reaction. After applying a substance to a piece of jewelry, a dark spot will appear on real gold, it may slightly differ in color from different samples, for example, in 375 samples it is a dark green spot, and 585 test the color of the track is dark brown. However, it will be a dark spot anyway.

Important! To begin with, you should know that products with precious stones are not suitable for this method of testing.

If you are interested in this verification method, then you will have to purchase several things:

• iodine;
• a cotton swab or a match with a cotton swab (sponge) at the end;
• a small piece of sandpaper or any other abrasive;
• if you are checking small details or embellishments, you will need a magnifying glass (to notice blackening) and tweezers.

After preparing everything you need, the verification process at home will take you no more than 5 minutes.

1. First, take the product itself. In this check, the "age" of the gold and the period of its last cleaning play absolutely no role. Most often, 585 gold is checked for authenticity, since in some cases jewelry made from it has an unusual reddish tint, but this does not mean at all that the product is fake. Here the fact is that quite a lot of ligatures are added to the alloy.
2. Then you need to lightly rub the jewelry on the inside for a more accurate reaction with iodine. The role here is also not played by the size of the "rubbed" place, so try to make the interaction space not very large and less noticeable.
3. Next, using a cotton swab or other device, you need to apply a small amount of iodine to the wiped area. Do not try to apply a lot of substances - this way the reaction, of course, will be more pronounced, but you will also remove this stain.
4. Well, now all that remains is to wait for the reaction of the metal. If the place where you dripped iodine darkens or, in general, turns black, then you have genuine gold in front of you. If the substance leaves a trace, but not dark, but light, or does not color the place of interaction at all, then you have some other metal in front of you, or maybe not a metal at all.

If you have determined that your gold piece is truly genuine, then you are faced with another question about how now to get rid of this dark spot. In fact, this is as easy as testing gold with iodine. In general, this stain disappears on its own over time, but if you need to remove it urgently, then you can use one of the methods. Let's start with the fact that the stain cannot be removed. using powder or soap solution.

The oldest and most proven for several generations is method of cleaning with lime, soda and salt. You need to take 80–90 g of lime, 30 g of salt and 70 g of baking soda. All this must be mixed in 1 liter of water. And then immerse a gold product in this water for about 1 hour.

Some people use the method of cleaning gold from stains using ammonia, but there are a number of disadvantages.

• vinegar does not always remove stains perfectly, in some cases a trace still remains.
• you need to keep gold in it for a long time to get a good result.

You can also help vinegar essence or just table vinegar. When using this method, protect all exposed skin and eyes, as the substance can provoke a chemical burn. Next, take a piece of cotton wool or a cotton pad, moisten it with essence and rub the stain until it disappears completely. Then rinse the gold in plain water and dry well.

Also, for cleaning, you can use a special substance - hyposulfite, you can buy it at any pharmacy. To clean, stir 1 tablespoon of hyposulfite in a glass of warm or cool water. Dip the jewelry in this solution for half an hour or an hour. Then rinse in water and dry.

Another time-tested method of cleansing is immersing the iodine stained product in a container of Coca-Cola... In addition to removing the stain, you will also get the cleaning of the product itself from dirt and grease. If the stain cannot be removed in any way, do not despair, you can always refer your jewelry to a specialist. MAsters from jewelry stores can remove this stain with the help of special modern means in just a couple of minutes.

You should also know that check the product with iodine only if the jewelry is made of a solid metal alloy... It is unlikely that it will be possible to successfully test a gilded jewelry, since during sanding you can simply erase the gilding layer and then the product will need to be carried to the service for an additional gilding procedure. Therefore, before checking, look at the product tag or simply take the jewelry to a specialist right away.

Although the method of testing gold with iodine is one of the most accurate and fastest at home, you will not get 100% reliability of the result. Therefore, if you need a guaranteed product rating, take it to the master.

For information on how to test gold with iodine at home, see the next video.