How to Verify Gold Jewelry Purity at Home (Without Special Equipment)

Start with the stamp

Real gold jewelry is almost always stamped with its purity — 10k, 14k, 18k, 22k, or a number like 585 (14k) or 750 (18k). Check the clasp, the inside of a ring band, or the back of a pendant. No stamp doesn't automatically mean fake, especially on older or handmade pieces, but it's the first thing to look for and the fastest thing to photograph if you're listing the piece for sale.

The magnet test

Gold is not magnetic — at any karat. If a piece is strongly attracted to a magnet, the base metal isn't gold, even if it's gold-plated on the surface. This catches the crudest fakes instantly, but it's not proof of purity: plenty of fake pieces use non-magnetic base metals like brass specifically to pass this test, so a piece that doesn't stick to a magnet still needs more checking.

The float test (rough, not conclusive)

Real gold is dense and sinks quickly in water without floating or spinning on the way down. Gold-plated or hollow pieces can behave differently. This is a useful gut check, not a purity measurement — it won't tell you 10k from 18k, and it can be misled by hollow construction that's still genuine gold.

The acid test and XRF testing

• Acid test kits (available cheap online) use a touchstone and karat-specific acid to check purity at a small scratch point — accurate for spot-checking but damages the piece slightly and takes some practice to read correctly
• XRF (X-ray fluorescence) testing is the industry-standard non-destructive method — a handheld scanner reads the exact alloy composition in seconds with no damage to the piece
• XRF is what a professional testing desk uses, and it's the most reliable option for anything valuable enough that a wrong guess would be expensive

When to just pay for professional testing

For anything you're about to pay real money for — a piece over a few hundred dollars, a branded item, or anything where the seller can't produce a stamp or provenance — the cost of professional XRF testing is trivial compared to the cost of being wrong. Home tests are good for a first-pass gut check; they're not a substitute for testing on a high-value purchase or sale.