On Thu, 13 May 2004 17:19:58 GMT, R. Wink wrote:

A lot of stuff is 14K "filled" which is to say "plated" If this was plated and wore off, then the base metal is most likely
brass or copper.
R. Wink


A lot of it is also plated silver, oddly enough. From my days working in
a pawn shop, I was told by a guy who really knows the business, that a
lot of heavy silver jewelry was made, then when the price of silver went
into the crapper, they had it gold plated. Gives a feeling of heavyness,
and the scam part was to say it was 100% precious metal. He cut a link
in half and showed me the silver center. (he was a superior jewelry
repair guy too)

Gunner


On 13 May 2004 13:50:29 GMT, Ignoramus27444 wrote:

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.

"A vote for Kerry is a de facto vote for bin Laden."
Strider