Ups and downs

Gold Refining Forum

Help Support Gold Refining Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Jmk88

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 7, 2019
Messages
352
I’ve said it previously but the physiology of chemistry and refining is something I think all newcomers should ponder.

Having had a fairly successful monetary run with my batches... I was stung this week quite hard.

I purchased 50 grams of “9ct” hallmarked items. The reality was they were 1/5 at the very best. I believe some less.

I have just about broke even, probably lost 50£ or so when you factor in time.

It’s not a nice feeling when you get to the end and you are 3 times under your anticipated weight. I believe experiences like this can make people never try again.

I tend to shout when I have a win so I thought I’d share my recent loss.
 
To add.... this is probably what I consider to be a complete loss as I’m struggling to even take a lesson from anything....

At least in my early days I was learning.

This has been a tough one to process psychologically.
 
I learned long ago a true and useful phrase regarding karat markings: “Hallmarks are Lies”.

Many members on the forum have run across gold filled marked as karat and, more often, plated marked as karat. I have encountered the latter many times.

One I ran across several times was .585(14k) marked testing as .250(6k).

Learning to test with several different methods can help avoid most of these fraudulently marked items.

Time for more coffee.
 
Yes agreed; I think that’s the lesson I take.

No technical ones though :cry:

Yes they were from the same chap who is not being the most forthcoming with answers.

I broke even and probably even made 10£ on the recent gains.

But thought I’d raise the issue as I’m sure there will be a lot of people buying scrap items at present.
 
Jmk88 said:
I’ve said it previously but the physiology of chemistry and refining is something I think all newcomers should ponder.

Per the underlined - not sure what that has to do with refining

:arrow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physiology

gold &/or other PMs are not living things

Kurt
 
It can cause some reactions that can be mistaken as emotional and physological responses to pathogens.
A special form of attraction :eek:
I think it is called Gold fever :mrgreen:
Which again can cause all kinds of strange behaviours. :)
 
I have a growing collection of faked items. Some marked as karat that barely make decent gold filled. A few marked karat that have no gold at all. Silver bars marked .999 that are magnetic steel. Morgan silver dollars that have no silver. I have been lucky in that my worst case I paid for gold filled and got some pretty gold plated steel. I think it happens to everyone at some time, we just learn to test material better and hope to cut down on future experiences.
 
Psychology Kurt...

Shall we play aeroplanes whilst I spoon feed.

I used to love that... best days of my life.

I wondered why my gold and silver never talk back at me... it’s that!!! They’re not living beings...

Kurt I would be lost without you. Adopt me.
 
No two were vintage pens and one was a vintage pencil.

The other items were marked as 1/5 so I was aware. But that was only 11 grams out of the 50.

I think Ill just accept it as a bit of a learning curve and try to be a bit more diligent.

All hallmarked.
 
Pens and pencils frequently have a steel liner inside so only the shell is gold but it can and is hallmarked legally, if it has a proper British hallmark it will be plum as they do not give any leeway.
 
The problem with 1/5 gold filled items is that it is very easy to mistake them for solid gold when you do acid testing on jeweler's stone. I once acid tested a 1/5 14k pin and if not for a hallmark I would be totally sure it is a karat gold. The pin had a very , very thick layer of gold.
 
Thanks both!!

Thank you Nick. That would make a lot of sense.

Was so sad when I saw how much I ended up with. I had expected 17/18 grams and got 6.

Ah well... I’ll focus my energy on my gratitude for that.

Thanks all.
 
Yggdrasil said:
It can cause some reactions that can be mistaken as emotional and physological responses to pathogens.
A special form of attraction :eek:
I think it is called Gold fever :mrgreen:
Which again can cause all kinds of strange behaviours. :)

:lol: :lol: :lol:
 
So you bought 50 grams of 9k, which only turned out to be 1/5


...and broke even.


You were paying what you thought was 20% of gold value?
 
Indeed.

I rarely pay more than 30% of spot value from my sources.

They are always broken/damaged items.
 
Good for you if you can make it work.

I've tried. I found it's easier to pay a much higher price, but get quality material consistently from repeat sellers.
 
Back
Top