Please help- a solid 9ct gold chain that bubbles

Hi all,

seems that my misfortune with chains still lasts! I won this 9ct gold chain at ebay auction and today it arrived. When I applied acid to confirm, I noticed the inner side of link and soldered area bubbles. I see sometimes soldered part bubbles, but link? I messaged the seller and she told me this is normal, as these tiny links are usually metal cored for strength( very hard indeed), and assured me it's tested 9ct gold. There's indeed no reaction on the outer link, just slightly tanned. What do you think? Should I happily accect it into my collection?

 

Btw is it true that the solder is usually not gold? I saw an article introducing lead solder on antique gold jewelry

 

Modern gold solders are typically around the same carat as the gold itself with other alloys to reduce the melting temperature such indium along with the usual alloys, copper, zinc and silver. Older/antique solders, I've seen pretty much everything including lead, and tin based (like electrical solder). There was also a lot of cadmium used on older gold solders - I think it's banned now due to the health issues.

Could be contamination from soldering, could be grub that's got in there, could be plated, kind of hard to say without seeing it in person.

 

If they are (base) metal cored, they aren't solid 9ct gold, but rolled gold or something like it. Since she admitted that herself, you have every right to return it.

I do agree that they used all sorts of solder back in the day.

 

Thank you! So that's acceptable if soldered part bubbles

 

Hmmm, I think she means that it's a 9ct gold sheet ( much thicker as edge visible to naked eye,probabl 1/4 mm?) pressed on a thin metal core, like if you see in the pic they're shaped like a bowl with a metal supporting the circulat shape. That makes sense to me. Probably could be explained with a dog clip, though it is solid gold there's always a metal supporting the mechanism

But strangely I tested some inner links again and most of them is not bubbling. Maybe when I first squeezed acid in it's actually the soldered part bubbling which looks like the whole inner area bubbles. There are some partially split links and no reaction on those links at all.

 

I image it as this, but as I tested it again the inner link gave no reaction. Nah I don't know

 

Update: tested 5 links further, no issue with inner part, so seems only on soldered links

 

And I'm not defending seller's explanation lol just wondering if anyone has come across with this thin chains with same problem

I know there's another chain on etsy with the exactly same length and slightly lighter than mine, but since it's an auction I paid a bit less

 

Is it hallmarked?

 

Nope, you hardly get a fully hallmarked chain that's over 100 years old, usually only a small 9ct tag on the first link or on the clasp, mine got a small 9c on dog clip and squared 9 on the jump ring