sdbirder Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 I was detecting on the beach today and found a large men's ring. VDI rings up low at a consistent 10 on the Equinox 800. The color outside is silvery, the inside golden. No markings, size 10.25, heavy at 5.34 grams. At first glance it appeared to be tungsten. When I got home I checked the VDI of my 4 tungstens and they were all 17-20 for similarly sized rings. Next the acid test, drops are from left to right, 14k passed, 18k passed, 22k fail, platinum fail, silver fail. Scratch test scratch was vigorous to get to the base metal. Could this really be a 18k ring, being silvery colored on the outside and golden on the inside? Has anyone seen a gold ring like this? Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strick Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 I would say thats wishful thinking...something I have been guilty of many times...gold is gold colored usually unless you get white gold. Most will be stamped....(only have a couple that are not) Acid tests on stainless, tungenston, silver etc are unreliable from my experience. Does it have a stamp? Also the VDI on the machine can mean nothing as well....dug a lot of junk that rings that come up as low conductors. If in doubt I guess you can take it to a jeweler. strick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdbirder Posted March 26, 2018 Author Share Posted March 26, 2018 1 hour ago, strick said: I would say thats wishful thinking...something I have been guilty of many times...gold is gold colored usually unless you get white gold. Most will be stamped....(only have a couple that are not) Acid tests on stainless, tungenston, silver etc are unreliable from my experience. Does it have a stamp? Also the VDI on the machine can mean nothing as well....dug a lot of junk that rings that come up as low conductors. If in doubt I guess you can take it to a jeweler. strick Unfortunately no stamp. I have two other stamped rings that I've been meaning to cash in, I'll bring this one along to my jeweler and see what he can find. Thanks for the response. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strick Posted March 26, 2018 Share Posted March 26, 2018 I'm getting tired of doing scratch tests myself and might get one of those electronic gold testers... strick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigSkyGuy Posted April 19, 2018 Share Posted April 19, 2018 It is possible that what you have found is "white" gold. Often, even gold alloyed with nickel will still not be truly white so it is plated with rhodium. The rhodium plating is thin and often wears off leaving the goldish color underneath. This may be why it is silvery on the outside but gold on the inside due to constant rubbing against the finger and the resulting wear and thinning of the rhodium coating. Just a guess. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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