Gold Testing Kit
A gold testing kit is a device consumers use to test the authenticity of their gold. Gold is a precious commodity, but before you can buy or sell scrap gold, you should know whether or not your gold is pure and will make a nice profit in a sales exchange. It makes all the difference in the world as to whether your gold is 9 karat, 10 karat, 14 karat, or 18 karat.
A gold kit comes with all sorts of gold testing equipment inside. Usually, gold testing kits include magnetic strips, acids, and gold needles as instruments to test the purity of your gold. A magnetic strip used to test gold works the same way as a refrigerator magnet or any other kind of magnet does: it’s job is to attract objects to it. Each starter gold testing kit also comes with small nitric acid bottles and a square stone used to test the gold. Nitric acid bottles contain one-half fluid ounce of acid to test each karat level, have various karat levels (10K, 14K, 18K, 22K), and come color-coded with various cap colors to distinguish the karat levels. The cap color yellow is used for 10K gold, green for 14K, white for 18K, and blue for 22K gold. Black square stones are used as part of gold scratch tests and usually are about 2 inches by 1.5 inches (2” X 1.5”) in size. Gold kits can also come with a gold weighing scale to weigh the size of your gold. The weight of your gold is an important factor to consider when selling scrap gold. The greater the size, the greater the monetary value your gold has.
Once you buy a gold starter kit, you must then test your gold for authenticity and weight. There are three types of gold kits that are available to test your gold: (1) an acid gold testing kit, (2) electronic gold testing kit, and (3) touchstone gold testing kit. An acid gold testing kit requires the use of gold needles to scratch the gold piece, followed by placing small samples of nitric acid onto the scratched area. To do this, you must first start with the lowest karat solution (9K) and work your way up to the 22K solution. You will know the authentic identity of your gold based upon the reaction it has to each karat level of nitric acid. If the gold turns green, the sample is not genuine gold. If the gold has another reaction to it, then it is likely a gold sample. The karat acid used to produce the reaction of the gold sample will tell you what karat weight the gold has.
An electronic gold testing kit are the latest innovation in gold testing equipment and are often in the shape of a box with a test plate on top along with a test plate cable clip by which to determine the authenticity of the gold sample. All you need to test gold using an electronic gold testing kit is to take the acid from the gold test and apply it to the test plate via the test plate cable clip. Next, turn your electronic gold tester on. It should register a number on the screen; take this number, look at the information chart provided in the gold kit, and find what the number indicates. The number registered on the electronic kit will tell you not only the purity of the gold (whether it’s real or not), but also the karat weight.
A touchstone gold testing kit involves the use of black glass or fieldstone to rub both a genuine gold sample and the sample in question on and compare the two. Rub both the sample in question and a proven sample onto the black glass, then place acidic drops onto both samples and observe the reactions. If the questionable sample does not react like the proven sample, it is not pure.
Once you determine the purity and karat weight of your gold, the next thing to do is find out the exact value of your gold. You can do this by looking up the unit price for gold online or in gold magazines. Next, take the gold price (as provided in a trusted source), place the current gold price over the number of grams in an ounce of gold. Then take the karat weight (for example, 10K), divide the karat weight by the highest karat weight (24), and multiply the answer by the answer from above (the answer you receive when placing the gold price per ounce over the number of grams in an ounce of gold). This should tell you how much a gold gram is worth. Lastly, take the price per gram and multiply the price by the number of grams of gold you possess. This should provide the total price you will receive for your gold.
Do you know how to buy gold? Buying gold consists of the same mathematic computation as selling your gold. When buying gold, you will want to weigh your gold first and then determine its market value before making a purchase. The same gold you invest in now can be financially valuable to you down the road. All in all, your gold testing kit is the key to an informative and prosperous future when you are looking for the best place to sell gold.
