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For Sale FS: "Gold" medal

Trader history for darkosaric (1)

Solid or plated? Purity?
 
If you have a gun powder scale, the balance beam type, you can use it to find the specific gravity of the coin; it's pretty easy, just look on YouTube for a 'how to' and once you have a hard number, look up the specific gravity of various metals for a match close enough to get you started.

An acid test, such as a pawn shop or other gold buyer will perform will damage the finish of the coin, so be aware.

Lastly, the First Thing you should do is take a strong magnet, with a thickness of towel or wash cloth between the coin and the magnet, and see if its ferrous metal like iron or steel or tin, etc., to see if it's worth the bother before going any further.

Good Luck.
 
Most decorative coins/medals like that are either plated on aluminum or, to give a heavier feel, on brass or bronze. A magnet won't tell you anything in those cases. If it were solid gold, it would feel "too heavy" at almost three times the density of steel. Probably best to assume it has only decorative value, low purity gold thinly plated over base metal.
 
The character means Happiness. Nothing makes it a collectible. If it has real weight, it would be min 24 carat, since Chinese like to own gold, but 17 or 21:carat doesn’t qualify. If base metal then a little lucky coin for children. The gold can be a plain bracelet or chain, or a gold coin or small piece with some kind of simple decoration.
By the way, the character is repeated over and over, so there is no lucky phrase.
 
I bought a digital scale made in China...it was advertised as coming with a gold plated bar to calibrate it. it was a cute little bar that was wrapped in a paper saying not to use it to calibrate anything.
 
Wow... so the Chinese have lawyers review their instructions for CYA too!
 
darkosaric said:
I have no idea - since I got it for practically nothing - I doubt there is much actual gold there. Not sure how to check it.
Click to expand...
A friend bought a string of pearls for 29 cents. She showed her 29 cent piece of costume jewelry to my wife, who recognized them as genuine pearls. Later appraised at several thousand dollars.
 
And let's no forget all the genuine "masters" paintings that have showed up in thrift stores, yard sales, and the like over the past century.
 
The idea of using a magnet is to quickly see if there is an attraction which will disqualify the piece as the real deal

Lots of phony gold chains, trinkets, are made of plated steel.
 
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