Testing scrap gold, silver and precious metals

The Acid Test

Ever heard of the saying “it’s passed the acid test”, “the acid test of time” comes to mind!

Well this “test” is so reliable that the term the acid test is entered into the English language dictionary to denote the ultimate proof! and help you acquire the best price for gold that you can.

The principle is simple. Acid will start to dissolve non-gold 'base' metal into a vivid mostly green froth but will not impact gold or silver. Acid testers come in sets of bottles. Each bottle contains a unique combination of acid, and each combination contains a chemical indicator that tells you the standard (purity) of the gold or silver. Although they are designed to measure the purity of gold to within 10% (accurate enough to measure the standard purities) with practice, results to within 5% accuracy are attainable.

Melt and Assay

Normally the acid test is fine for most scrap gold bits but occasionally customers come to me with gold that cannot be accurately tested for various reasons by acid so I suggest an assay test. This is where you’re gold or silver is put through a melt process. Should you have a large amount, it might be worth paying to have it melted and assayed rather than tested by the scrap dealer as to acquire a 100% purity value especially if there are no hallmarks present.

The charge for a 'gold assay' (to find out how much gold is in the alloy) is about £50.00 at the time of writing, with the charge for a 'Full Assay' which will also separate out platinum and palladium is closer to £100.00. Once this is done you are free to choose whether to take the gold back (it will be melted into one solid lump) or sell it to the trader. Normally a certificate will be issued by the assay office with a corresponding number that is indented onto the melted gold. This is proof of purity and you can now sell scrap gold with confidence!

As part of our service Best Price for Gold offer a quick FREE assay testing service. Please contact us for more details.

Just a note regarding small jewellery pieces in particular, you may find that melting it to find that it was valuable is hardly practicable and, anyway, most people merely need to know the approximate purity: 9ct or 14ct or 18ct or 22ct.