"Ignoramus27444" wrote in message
...
I asked this question in another newsgroup, but decided to also ask
here, since there is a bunch of experts who can probably give some
good input.

I received a "gold chain" as a birthday present, two months ago. Since
then, the chain has discolored in ways that made me suspect that it is
not real gold. It is stamped "14K Italy".

For very high quality scans (including enlarged pictures) of the chain,
see

http://igor.chudov.com/tmp/gold-chain/

(click on the thumbnail images to enlarge).

Can this possibly be gold?

I am going to sam's club tonight and will ask their jeweler also.

I think that the person who gave me this present got screwed.


If you own, or have access to, an accurate digital (or anaolog) scale, then you could
do a specific gravity test on the chain.
This is not absolutely definitive, but is a damn good indicator.
The scale should be 0.01g resolution. The more common 0.1g resolution unit will give
less accurate, but still useable results.

See http://mendosus.com/sg.html for the method.

--
Jeff R.