Featured Do you fully trust these old tags on your gold chain?

Hi all, just wondering: for someone who constantly deal with antique gold chains of small weight, this type of mini tags attached to one link near the clasp stating the gold purity is pretty common. Given that there's no sign of re-soldering, should I be confident with buying chains with such tag? Have you ever had a chain with tag turning out as fake? Thanks for sharing!

 

I'd be leery of more recent 14k marks, but an old school 9 Ct mark is far more likely to be legit. Lots of fake 14k came out of China 30 years ago and probably still does.

 

Yeah, I found a big bold CT mark reassuring, but if it's a tiny k something I will definitely test it, but unsure if there's any exception

 

Milor jewelry. Anything with their mark on it pretty well has to be real. They're an Italian company who now make a pile for sale on TV shopping channels. Their stuff isn't a hot enough commodity to bother faking. It can be hard to read some of the newer stainless or bronze pieces, but it also means stuff gets missed.

 

I once splashed out $200 on a 14 kt Italian gold chain that turned out to be fake. I was BITTER.

 

Oh how did that happened? Could it be a resoldered hallmarked link on a fake chain?

 

That's been known, or a real clasp attached to a fake chain. That's been done too. I bought one this week that's 10k and genuine where I looked at the clasp first, but usually I'm looking at the links. If they're soldered together your odds go way up. Unsoldered jump rings mean sterling or gold-filled. Soldered ones usually mean good metal because someone cared. Another one is hollow links; no one hollows out brass.

 

Soldered links, okay! Soldered jump rings, hmmm, that does not apply to many antique chains I have and see, probably for newer ones

 

True. If the chains are older, you're gambling. Of course, some WWI gold over brass jewelery is worth a good bit on its own.

 

Just always be sure of what you're buying with that price!

 

When gambling on gold chains, I max out at about $10.

 

I wore an 18K snake chain since the early 80's...
the only mark..on the clasp...
after years the spring broke...so I replaced it with a stronger 14 K clasp...

didn't make the chain any less 18K to me.....

on day the chain got fouled....so I took off the clasp and sold it as 18K...

 

I’ve seen tags like that on older British gold.

 

Yep mine in pic is early 20th century

 

I expect this to be British, which means I don't see any reason to doubt it. Nice links too.
And speaking from a Dutch viewpoint (so it may sound arrogant to people from countries where 9ct is legal), I can't see why anyone would fake 9ct gold. 18 or 20 I can understand, but 9?

I test all Italian gold, whether Milor or not.

 

Well a good point! If I can fake 18ct why would I still fake 9ct LOL but still, 9ct is much more expensive than 9ct rolled gold which can be hard to tell, as I was just hit by a fake recently

 

Oh and you just remind me of many modern examples plated with 9ct, like you are plating it anyway and I still cannot get a 24ct plating, not even 18ct? Or do people prefer a less golden colour

 

They don't know what the real stuff looks like, so it looks fake. (all the more for me!)

 

I bought a pin once with an 18k mark that was just plated. Was in a thrift grab bag so not a big loss. Can’t recall the name of the company but they still do business. Like a fashionable geared to young urban type dressers brand. Not sure how they get away with it. I guess no one is really checking this outside of countries that require actual hallmarking. I think they sold solid gold pieces too so not sure how they differentiate them.

I always wondered to what extent purity marked chains can be trusted. I just trust my eyes at this point really.

The only issue I ever had with a mark on a chain was someone polishing off the GF after 12K once. I assume it was intentional but could have been natural wear technically.

 

The GF one was tricky. If someone's polishing a mark that deep I guess it will also expose the base metal underneath?

But yeah if there's no full hallmarks just test it as always