Featured Are These Spacer Beads Gold or Gold Filled?

I am having a hard time testing these spacer beads because I can't get a good scratch on the stone. The clasp is marked 14k and tests positive for that. The black beads look like onyx. No makers mark that I can see.

Just wondering what everyone's educated guess would be before I try to test it again.

Edited to add: I don't see any wear on the spacer beads like you might find on gold filled beads but I don't know if it's because there's minimum wear to the necklace or because they are gold rather than gold filled.

 

If they were real pearls, wouldn't there be knots or something between them??????

 

Interesting that some lengths of the necklace are knotted, but not sections with pearls. I would say:

• If they are artificial pearls, the spacer beads are unlikely to be solid gold.
• Gold filled does not necessarily show wear the way gold plated would, & this looks barely worn.

 

I didn't even notice that there were no knots between the pearls. That's odd.

 

I'm not seeing a 14K mark in any of the photos, but do see this, not a good sign for quality:

 

Just doublechecked - the pearls are real.

The surface of these pearls are quite rough. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing when it comes to pearls.

Any of the necklaces that I have come across in the past have gold filled spacer beads which makes sense for the lower $$ jewelry that I'm accustomed to coming across around here. These beads just look so crisply gold though that it made me wonder if they could be solid gold.

I thought I would post to get opinions before I try to twist the necklace around more to get a stone scrape. The quality doesn't seem to be there for them to be solid gold though.

I appreciate everyone's thought on it.

 

Ooh, that jump ring is terrible looking and the clasp isn't much better.

 

If that piece is marked, it'll be on the hook end of the clasp, not that oblong bit. The beads do look like gold; I've found more than a few in that shape. One trick is to check the pearls for black marks. Black on the pearls means gold. Green means junk.

 

I actually find this dinged in place encouraging. Most things that look like gold but are not, are not so soft & do not dent easily.

 

Yep - that too. Gold spacer beads are often tinfoil-thin. If they're sturdy they're often brass.

 

That was the first thing I noticed, and it looks good to me as well. The ring doesn't, but it wouldn't be the first time....

 

The 14k marking is on the hook end, but I don't see a maker's mark anywhere.

 

That was my line of thinking as well.

 

it's lookin better all the time !!!!

 

This dates to the late 80s, if anyone cares. I've been known to rip these apart to melt the cheaply made gold bits and reuse the nice beads.

 

I can't believe I never came back to update this thread.

The spacer beads and the clasp were 14k gold. Yay!

 

Wonderful, tie!