22K purity detector

J

joegold

New Member
Hello fellas. I have a very simple question about 22K purity of gold. I am in the business of buying and selling scrap gold and pretty new to the business. Anyhow, I bought 22K gold from an individual who told me that the purity is .916 but when I took it to the refinery to sell it they told me it is .87

So I lost about $1.50 per gram due to my mistake of not checking the purity properly. What is the best method of checking the purity of gold? I am interested in something portable. No acids/liquids.

I came across this device:

http://www.igem.com/Tri-Electronics-G-24-Portable-Electronic-Gold-Tester.html

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
trew said:
joegold said:
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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Don't get into a business you know nothing about is my advice.
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If I made a few thousand dollars off this business, then I think I do know something about it don't you think?
 
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carat_(purity)#section_2

Have a read of the above link, interesting to know that skin purity can be different to the after melting purity?

Terminology

22/22K - a quality mark indicating the purity of gold most popularly used in India. This purity was adapted and practiced by the big jewellers and was later passed to jewel smiths. The first 22 signifies the "Skin purity", the purity of the top layer of the gold jewelry, and the second 22 signifies that after melting purity of the gold jewellery will be 22-karat, or 91.67% of pure gold. This system is used to show consistency in the quality of the gold.

This practice was pioneered and introduced in the early mid-1980s by Nemichand Bamalwa & Sons of Kolkata, India, sparking a revolution in India, as it forced jewellers to indicate correctly the after-melting purity. Heightened consumer awareness made it a most sought-after stamp or quality mark.

This symbol or stamp can be found in such Asian countries as India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Yemen, and Persian Gulf countries.
 
joegold said:
Hello fellas. I have a very simple question about 22K purity of gold. I am in the business of buying and selling scrap gold and pretty new to the business. Anyhow, I bought 22K gold from an individual who told me that the purity is .916 but when I took it to the refinery to sell it they told me it is .87

So I lost about $1.50 per gram due to my mistake of not checking the purity properly. What is the best method of checking the purity of gold? I am interested in something portable. No acids/liquids.

I came across this device:

http://www.igem.com/Tri-Electronics-G-24-Portable-Electronic-Gold-Tester.html

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Click to expand...

I have the "GXL-24PRO Gold Tester by TRI electronics" myself, they are portable and easy to use. No acid but you do use a contact Gel on the sensor tip (Platinum) will need to be washed after each use (that's use not test) Works out well to test a whole bunch of stuff at once, bit fiddly for just one item. It takes a little practice to use it properly (i.e. get correct readings, proper contact, avoid solder joins) I find it works very well once you use it for a while. Only one issue I have with it is that it can't detect heavy plating, though depending how thick the plating is then neither does an XRF machine, though an XRF would do a better job. So yes if you had one of these then it would have shown up as 20K-21K rather than 22K so you would have known before buying that it was lower purity. It's not feasible to really buy your own XRF so would say these are probably the next best thing, next would be acids. Best to use a combination of testers if you serious. Use a electronic tester, acids and stone, magnifying glass, magnet, scales and most important is experience when you go to buy then you can double check after with XRF but it's usually too late at that point to do anything about it. The better you learn to detect the better price you can offer to buy at, while your still new you will need to offer a lower price to counter you in-experience and you will have a few good pieces walk to start with, it's that or you loose coin while you learn.
 
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