IS THIS GOLD or PLATED ?? or what

[ferdware]

I have been thinking of the first gold ring that I found. I found it at a kids park with my V3i. It hits a VDI of 53.

The markings are. 10 K G.F. (then a U with an arrow through it)

I allways assumed that the G.F. was gold fill. but now Im not sure.

Can anyone "fill" me in on this.

Thanks
FERD

 

[Larry (IL)]

You were right, Gold Filled is a heaver gold finish that is mechanically bonded to the base metal, much better than plated.

 

[ferdware]

So can this still be sent in with my scrap for money, or is it junk ?

Thankyou
FERD

 

[nw1886]

Most scrap places buy G.F. and Rolled Gold at sterling. (Not worth getting rid of as it'd be around $1.75?) Still a nice quality ring and fun find Ferd!

 

[burlbark]

I send mine to Garfield refining and melt down all my gold fill before I send it. This way they dont get to pay a fixed rate for gold fill, they will actually smelt it and karat test it then. You get 10x the money this way.

 

[Larry (IL)]

You will get something for it but not much. The gold is often 1/20 of the weight of the ring and remember it is 10K. If the ring was solid 10K and it weighs 2 grams, it would be worth about $35. Now figure 1/20 of that comes out to about $1.25. ( I guessed at the weight )

Here is a good precious metals calculator:

http://www.dendritics.com/scales/metal-calc.asp