Pieces marked “solid gold”

Somewhat recently I’ve encountered two pieces for sale marked “solid gold”. One was a late 19th or early 20th sporting award pin and the other was a collegiate pin probably from around that era. They were marked “solid gold” rather than denoting a purity in any way or GF, RG, plated, or anything like that. What if any experience do you guys have with this mark? Are the items actually solid 10k, 14k, or 18k gold, or was it just another way to give the appearance of gold while using only a minuscule amount of actual gold?

 

Are you in the USA? The National Gold and Silver Stamping Act was enacted in 1905.The ring would need to be tested as there really isn't a requirement to mark any precious metal object.

 

long as it doesn't say....... solid gold color.............

 

The items would, as said, need to tested - the National Stamping Act provided that if an item was stamped, it would have to meet the indicated fineness - the 'Solid Gold' stamp had no numeric indicator, so was usually used on lower karat gold. Jeweler trade associations, as well as state legislation, usually suggested either 9K or 10K as minimum fineness for 'Solid Gold', though that was certainly no guarantee (the last piece I had tested was 10K)...

~Cheryl

 

Surely you would want to test them if you owned them. More just curious to hear what people’s actual experience if any was with this type of jewelry. One of the pieces I mentioned was purportedly tested at 14k. I don’t typically trust everyone’s acid tests since it’s pretty easy to get a false positive with GF or plating. Interesting to know your last piece tested out at 10k Cheryl. The most important piece of info for me is that it was supposed to denote actual “solid” gold of one karat or another. If I do run into another piece in the future and don’t have the ability to test it before buying I can make an educated gamble or not knowing there’s a moderate chance it’s at least low karat gold.

 

I'd have to run through my files, but if I recall correctly, some manufacturers were using extremely low karat gold, way below 9K or 10K...

~Cheryl

 

Here is an interesting conversation on a metal detecting forum... http://www.treasurequestxlt.com/community/index.php?threads/questions-about-a-gold-ring.58376/

 

Thanks Holly, I read a different discussion, on a different metal detecting site but didn’t see this one. So here’s a question; has anyone ever seen verdigris on something proven to be “solid” low karat gold? I don’t have experience with gold below 10k personally. However when it comes to silver I’ve never seen verdigris on .999, .950, or .925 silver. I have seen verdigris on lower fineness silver like .830, .800, and .750. Obviously this is due to the higher copper content. Holly’s link references 8k and the ring in question appears to have some corrosion or verdigris. Seeing that the copper/base metal content is much higher on low karat gold, is it possible for verdigris to form on it? On higher karat gold you can literally pull it out of the ground after decades or centuries being buried and it will usually shine and be intact just like the day it was lost or buried. I found a piece mourning jewelry I believe was at least 14k, it not higher and was probably lost well over 100 years ago. It was still perfect looking. So, is it possible for low karat gold to have verdigris?

 

Somewhere on the forums there is a discussion about verdigris on gold. I believe gold under 22K with copper as an alloy can have verdigris due to environmental conditions.