Question for those of you familiar with bonded gold

[Bigdog72]

I am fairly familiar with karat gold, and have never had an issue identifying it. I have the chance to buy a large lot of what the seller describes as 14KT bonded gold jewelry. These items are brand new old stock from a jewelry store that went belly up in the 90's. Again, my knowledge of bonded, filled, or plated items is limited, so I am looking for a little feedback from those that have dealt with it in the past. I was able to inspect a few pieces, and none of it is marked 1/10 1/20 GF or any marks for that matter. A quick frop of 14K acid for a minute had no effect on the item. I have a GXL24 tester, and testing a same item 3 times, I get varying readings of gold. Drops a little each time, which usually is a sign of a non solid karat item, but that is what I am expecting to buy, so I would take that as good sign. So how can a person determine if an item is plated, 1/10 or 1/20 GF ? Without having to destroy a sample batch of items. I am looking at about 1000 grams of metal, so the difference from 1/20 to plated is going to be substantial. If this helps, the base metal does attract to my earth magnet, so I assume it is not copper, or silver. I do not know if this matters in the gold filled world of jewelry. Thanks for you help.

 

[eeTHr]

If your gold tester drops in value on each subsequent test, I'd say they are using the term "bonded" as a substitute for plated.

Let a drop of 22K acid sit on it for a minute or so. It might take only a few seconds. It will probably show base metal where the drop was. If so, you can look with a magnifier and see how thin it is.

If the 22K doesn't penetrate it, cut a large notch with a fine file, and you will see the thickness of the gold then.

It soulds like it is common plated, to me.

 

[Harold_V]

If this helps, the base metal does attract to my earth magnet, so I assume it is not copper, or silver. I do not know if this matters in the gold filled world of jewelry. Thanks for you help.

Run like the wind. I would assume, at the very best, that you'd recover less than 1/10 of 1% gold. It's not worth the trouble unless you can get them free. Should that happen, place them in your stock pot, where you'll recover the traces of value without expense.

Harold