Chapter 1447: seven green, eight yellow, nine five red, yellow and white with gray and half gold
The golden three-legged toad inkstone in front of Chen Wenzhe is larger in size. It is sixteen centimeters high and nearly thirty centimeters long.
Such a big lump of gold is worth a lot of money in itself.
If the shape is in line with the style of the Northern Song Dynasty, then if it is an authentic Northern Song Dynasty goldware, the price will be even higher.
In fact, Chen Wenzhe is still very new to identifying old and new gold products.
After all, when he opened his shop, he first made goldware. Although they were all gold bracelets, he really had a high level of experience in appraising gold.
How to distinguish the authenticity of old gold from fakes, and what are the methods to distinguish the authenticity of old gold from fakes? Chen Wenzhe knows all these.
To put it simply, the easiest thing is to identify the color.
The color of old gold is not as bright as new gold, and there are traces of time imprinted on the surface.
Moreover, old gold is more yellow in color and softer in texture.
Because old gold has been worn for many years and preserved for decades or even hundreds of years, a layer of patina has naturally formed on the surface.
In the old days, some gold shops would use turmeric powder to bake a layer of color on processed gold jewelry, thereby increasing the color of the gold jewelry.
Therefore, old gold will look more yellow.
This also leads to many people who may not know how to distinguish the authenticity of old gold from fake ones, and they don’t know what are the methods to distinguish the authenticity of old gold from fake ones!
In modern times, old gold is usually marked with a mark indicating the purity of the old gold (999 or 999.9) or the words "pure gold".
The carat number will also be marked, 10k, 14k, 18k,
22k or 24k etc.
Old gold has the characteristics of low ductility and low hardness. You can leave scratches on the gold with a pin or fingernail.
This is why people like to bite gold with their teeth.
Old gold jewelry with high quality will make a dull sound when thrown on the ground and has no elasticity.
It is elastic and has a crisp sound, but the quality is definitely not high.
If you are confident that your skills are good, you can use a musket to burn old gold.
When the old gold turns red, stop burning and wait for it to cool down naturally.
If it does not change color or turn black, it means it is pure gold, but not vice versa.
Old gold with high fineness will become brighter and brighter as it burns.
Find an unglazed porcelain plate. If you don't have one, you can buy random porcelain at a home improvement store.
Use a gold object to scratch the porcelain plate. If black scratches are left on the porcelain plate, your gold object is not real gold.
If the scratch is gold, it is real gold.
This method can expose the fake gold, but your goldware may be scratched.
In addition to these methods, there is a lot of knowledge about looking at gold, such as looking at purity.
This also depends on the color. In the old jargon, seven green, eight yellow and nine five red, yellow and white with gray and half gold, this is how to describe the purity of old gold.
According to the different luster and color of old gold, pure gold, K gold, real gold and fake gold can be roughly distinguished.
If the color is green and white, the purity is not high; if the color is red or yellow, the purity is high.
Of course, the easiest way is to look at the modern gold mark.
Unfortunately, marks can also be faked.
Therefore, if you have technology, you still need to have some real hard technology.
For example, weighing the hardness and weight is Chen Wenzhe's unique skill.
If it can be destroyed, there are even more ways to identify gold.
For example, after bending pure gold jewelry two or three times, fish scale patterns will appear at the bends.
When pure gold jewelry is bent, it feels hard and the fish scale pattern is not obvious.
Old gold containing more impurities will break after being bent two or three times.
If it is made of raw gold, it will break when bent, and the cross section will have an obvious grainy shape.
If you want to make the identification easier, you can use acid points if conditions permit.
On the touchstone, grind out the jewelry to be identified and the old gold for comparison, and then use a glass rod to test the nitric acid on the gold.
If it is not gold or pure gold, the golden path will disappear or change.
Low color disappears quickly, high color disappears slowly, mixed gold disappears quickly, and clear gold disappears slowly.
The last step is to burn it with fire, which destroys it very thoroughly, so it is generally not used when appraising gold artifacts.
If you are recycling gold and just using materials, you can use fire to burn the jewelry you want to identify red.
After cooling, observe the color change. If the surface still has the original old gold color, it is pure gold.
If the color darkens or becomes black to varying degrees, it is not pure gold. The lower the fineness, the thicker the color. If it turns completely black, it must be fake gold jewelry.
These are common methods used by ordinary gold shop owners.
If it was in ancient times, there were not so many scientific and technological methods, and these technologies were not summarized, then gold could only be identified based on experience.
For example, if you listen to the sound, if old gold with a gold content of more than 99% is thrown on a hard ground, it will make a clicking sound, which is soundless and has no elasticity.
Fake or low-quality old gold has a crisp sound without dullness.
It usually makes a "dang-dang" sound, with lingering sound and violent beating after landing, which is very obvious.
The final technique is to measure the weight. Old gold is small and heavy, so weigh it with your hands to see if the size is proportional.
Generally, when gold jewelry is weighed in the hand, if it feels slightly heavy, you can tell that it is real gold jewelry.
Large and light shapes may be adulterated. For bulky and light jewelry, you should be wary of authenticity issues.
These are all ways to identify the quality of gold artifacts. As for identifying authenticity, it is even simpler.
Prepare a tall glass, fill it with water, and you can start testing.
Throw the metal in and the solid gold jewelry will quickly sink to the bottom.
Imitation gold and other metals may float above the bottom, or even completely float on the water.
In addition, real gold will not rust or discolor when wet.
The simplest test is to use a magnet. Real gold will never attract magnets.
The magnet is easy to carry, you can put it in your pocket at will, and it is very convenient to test.
There are many imitation gold and other alloys that attract magnets.
So, just use a magnet close to them and see if they will be attracted by the magnet, and you can judge whether it is true or false.
People who have worn fake old gold jewelry may have experienced skin discoloration caused by it.
But you can also use your skin to test its authenticity directly.
All it takes is holding the metal in your hands for a few minutes, preferably in hot weather.
Once sweat appears on your skin and the sweat reacts to it, observe the changes. There will be absolutely no change.
He has enough skills in identifying gold, so Chen Wenzhe can tell almost at a glance that the three-legged golden toad in front of him is old gold, and it is old enough.
Because he can roughly tell the gold content of the three-legged golden toad through its color.
More than 97%, this content was definitely pure gold in the Song Dynasty.
He has seen this kind of gold once or twice, so he is naturally very familiar with it.
Therefore, if you don't talk about anything else, just looking at the purity of the gold of this three-legged golden toad, you can see that it is not simple.