Gold and silver
Testing Gold and Silver at Home
A handful of simple tests are commonly used to get a first, rough read on whether an object is likely to be gold or silver, and roughly how pure. Every one of them has real limits, and some involve genuine safety hazards or can damage the piece being tested. Understood correctly, they are a way to narrow down a guess. Treated as proof, they can be badly misleading, especially against a well-made fake.
The magnet test
Gold, sterling silver, and platinum are not magnetic in any meaningful way, so a strong, obvious pull toward a magnet is a fairly reliable sign that a piece is not solid precious metal, or at least not solid throughout. This test is cheap, quick, and does no damage, which makes it a reasonable first step.
Its limit is important: passing the magnet test proves nothing on its own. Many base metals and alloys used in convincing fakes are also non-magnetic, so an object that does not stick to a magnet has simply not been ruled out yet. Plated pieces, a thin layer of real gold or silver bonded over a non-magnetic base metal, will pass this test easily while containing very little precious metal at all.
Acid testing, and why it needs real caution
Acid testing works on the idea that different karats and finenesses of gold, and different grades of silver, react differently when a testing acid is applied to a small mark the metal leaves on a testing stone. Jewelers and dealers use graduated acid solutions and a set of comparison needles to narrow down purity this way, and it is a long-established professional method when done correctly.
It is also a test involving genuine acid, and that deserves to be taken seriously rather than treated as a household trick. Testing acids are corrosive, can give off fumes, and can cause real chemical burns to skin and eyes on contact. This page describes what the test is and what it is generally used for, not how to perform it, and it does not walk through the procedure step by step. Acid testing equipment, if used at all, calls for a well ventilated area, proper eye protection and gloves rated for the acids involved, and following the manufacturer's own safety instructions for that specific product exactly. It is worth knowing, too, that the test leaves a small mark or scratch on the piece, a form of damage even when it is minor, which is one more reason to prefer a non-destructive method for anything that might carry real value, covered below.
Specific gravity and the ceramic streak test
The specific gravity, or density, test compares an object's weight in air to its weight submerged in water, since pure gold and pure silver each have a known, fixed density that alloys and base metals rarely match exactly. Done carefully, with an accurate scale, this test can catch some fakes, including plated tungsten, a well-known scam because tungsten's density happens to sit close to gold's. It struggles with hollow objects, mixed alloys, and pieces that include stones, solder, or other materials, all of which throw off the calculation in ways that are easy to misread.
The streak test involves drawing the metal firmly across a piece of unglazed ceramic and reading the color of the mark it leaves, gold leaves a golden streak and silver a whitish gray one, in rough terms. It is quick and requires nothing more than a broken tile, but it scratches and marks the piece in the process, which makes it a poor choice for anything with a finished, visible surface or any collectible value. Base metals and platings can also leave misleadingly similar streaks, so this test is weak evidence at best.
Why these tests fool people, and what to do about it
Every test on this page evaluates the surface, the weight, or a small sampled point on an object, and a well-made fake is specifically designed to pass exactly that kind of check. Plating puts a genuine layer of gold or silver over a base metal core, which can pass a magnet test, an acid test applied only to the surface, and a casual visual inspection all at once. Convincing counterfeits sometimes use a core metal chosen deliberately to mimic gold's density, which is exactly what makes the tungsten scam effective against a simple specific gravity check performed without care.
The reliable way past these limits is non-destructive professional testing, most commonly X-ray fluorescence, or XRF, analysis, which reads the actual elemental composition of a piece without cutting, scratching, or applying acid to it, from a reputable dealer, assayer, or appraiser. For anything that might be a scarce coin, a signed piece, or an object with meaningful history, that professional step is worth taking before any home test that could damage or devalue the piece. the collectible gold and silver guide covers how melt value is calculated once purity is actually known, and collectible versus bullion value explains why identifying a piece correctly matters before deciding what happens to it next.
These tests are described here as general background, not as instructions to perform, and this page does not walk through an acid-testing procedure. Testing acids are corrosive and can be hazardous; anything potentially valuable should go to a reputable dealer or assayer for non-destructive testing rather than a home test.
Common questions
Is acid testing safe to do at home?
Testing acids are corrosive and can give off fumes, so this requires real caution: proper ventilation, eye protection, and gloves rated for the acid used, following the product's own safety instructions exactly. The test also leaves a small mark on the piece. For anything potentially valuable, non-destructive professional testing is the safer and more reliable option.
Why do plated fakes pass simple tests like the magnet test?
Plating puts a real layer of gold or silver over a base metal core, so a test that only checks the surface, or a magnetic pull that a non-magnetic core would also pass, cannot see what is underneath. Non-destructive methods like XRF analysis read the actual composition rather than the surface alone.