Counterfeit Jewelry?

[BARGuy]

Just curious...How common is "found" jewelry with bogus markings?

In less than a year, I've pulled 3 "silver" items, marked .925 that weren't...My first instances in over 40 years. And then yesterday, I unearth a complete, linked bracelet. As usual with potential keepers, I didn't look at it close at the point of recovery, but casually dropped it into my Levis' pocket...later, at home, I can determine whether it's silver, gold or junk.

In this case, I get home, put the loupe on it & the clasp is stamped "14K ITALY". But the entire clasp is tarnished black!

Closer examination of the links with the loupe reveals heavy wear of the apparent gold electroplating. Bummer!

This piece was recovered from a school soccer field at about 2.5"-3".

Is this just a school yard issue, or is this becoming a PITA to others?

 

[dixiedigger57]

yes there is a ton of that flea market crap out there. my MD guru is a jeweler, and he sees the stuff come in all the time. some is really heavy plated, but still junk. found a piece the other day. we even had a shister sell a gold bar that was hollowed out and lead filled and duped a local jeweler once. another thing is fake stones, moisonite. the jewelers had to buy new diamond testers to get by them. good as a diamond. a lot of estate stuff is duplicated with original stored in safe. a local gave his wife a 5 carat diamond. later told her he wanted to have it reset and cleaned and he returned it to her. filed for divorce. she went to the same store to see if she could sell it. well the hubby brought it in and had the original stone removed and a fake put in. one mad woman. palladium is a good metal, valuable. bet its next on the fake stuff.