How to Proof Real Gold
Image source: http://www.rpmex.com/Images/Gold-Eagles/1988-W-50-Gold-American-Eagle-Proof-70-NGC.jpg
Take it to a pawn shop that buys gold they will test it, it is very simple and, some shops won't even charge you. It only takes a couple of minutes.
Take the ring to a jewelry store and have an acid test done it is simeple will not hurt the ring and cheap to do. It will tell you the carat of gold. The jeweler uses a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid. The ring is gently scratched onto a "touchstone", and then a couple of needles of known karat are also rubbed onto the stone. The aqua regia dissolves the alloy immediately, leaving the gold, and the higher the karat, the more yellow the mark left (though it eventually all dissolves).
Take the ring to a reputable jeweler, other than the one you bought it from. Ask to have a carat test done it will let you know if it is gold and the carat of the gold. 24 carat being pure 10 carat being the lowest that can be legally called gold in the USA.
I have a yellow gold diamond bangle that have the initials "pd" with a crown on top of the initials, that was given to me as a present. How can I find out if this is real or not?
Well, can't see the piece here, but I do know that jewelry with PD on it often means it was crafted with Palladium. Not to mean that your piece is not gold, but that's a signifier that it might be a mixed metal.
The poster may no longer be here to read this, but a very simple way to tell if somehting is real gold is to put some foundation and face powder on the back of your hand and then rub the gold against it. If a black mark is left behind it is real gold. Real gold creates a chemical reaction with most makeup that fake gold will not.
If the gold is real the molacules in the gold will be more packed together which makes it heavy. However if the gold is fake the molecules will not be as tight and not very heavy. If you place real gold in water it will probably sink and displace water if its in a jug. If its not real gold it will probably float. It's all about density and how much water is displaced.
Usually if a piece of jewelry is gold it will be stamped with the stamp 14k or 12K stamp on the inside of a ring, on a clasp or a necklace etc. If it is a chain, "pile" the chain in a messy pile real gold chain will not "kink"
