the thing about my jewelry finds...

[GRAY GHOST]

...is this: i have found jewelry in quantity, but rarely ever quality pieces. believe it or not, most of the pieces in the pics i posted last night were damaged. the clasps on many of the necklaces are broken, but not worth it to have them fixed. most of the rings are severely scuffed or bent out of shape, and most are cheap. there's a couple of nice sterling rings and 3 10k-14k rings in there too. the nickel plated mickey mouse fork was found at an old homesite dating from the 1920s. the xmas ornament was laying on top of the ground at another old homesite, recently vacated. so i can't say that iv'e ever found the really good gold and silver pieces. some of the pieces pictured are the cheap italy made "14k" a lot of people know about. but it was always fun to find it all. the really good jewelry has always eluded me. oh well, just hafta keep looking. hh,

 

[Beale]

Hey Grey Ghost I have a question for you. What about the cheap 14k Italy gold. I do not know about it. Why is it cheap? Thanks in advance, Beale.

 

[echostar61]

Excellent Post GrayGhost . And a ring is a ring is a ring....they are all Fun to find.
I do wish I could find one with the stone still in it though

Terri

 

[jim tn]

I don't know exactly what it is either, but I have 2 hefty neck chains I've found marked 14k Italy and have been told by three different jewelers that each aren't gold, or if there is any gold in them, very, very, little. One was dug and cleaned up pretty good. The other I detected in some thick grass and I knew right off it was gold. Or, it sure looked like it. Laying each beside another actual gold chain I had found, they did look ever so slightly different, though. Guess I'll dig them out of my box of questionable "whats its" and soak them in bleach. I read somewhere if gold items turn black in bleach after about 25 minutes, it isn't gold. Something to do on a rainy day anyway, besides fixing a leaky faucet, of which, I am being prodded to do. Hummmm. HH jim tn

 

[Daniel A.]

The fun factor is always there I've been lucky to pick off some very high end pieces, but the thrill is there for every one. Dan

 

[GRAY GHOST]

hello beale, and everyone else, i found that long [18"] chain about 8 years ago in a churchyard. taking a short break, i pulled it out of the bag and saw 14k, made in italy on it. oh yeah, this is sweeeet, i thought to myself. the necklace is the color of a nickel that's been in the ground a while. hmmmm, that's odd. so i took it to a jeweler friend who immediately laughed when he saw it. i hope you didn't pay much for it, says he. he then went on to explain that most jewelry makers in italy do make fine jewelry of gold, and are legitimate. but apparently, there's a few dishonest firms out there applying cheap gold plate and selling them off as the real thing. flea market stuff. i wasn't surprised, but felt let down. i then asked him about soaking gold in bleach, and he said this: NEVER SOAK GOLD OF ANY KIND IN BLEACH. IT CAUSES A CHEMICAL REACTION THAT BREAKS THE GOLD DOWN OVER TIME, AND IS IRREVERSIBLE. go buy yourself a cheap gold test kit like they have at the pawnshops, he told me. of course, i haven't yet got one. so apparently there's just as much knockoff gold out there as there is of the real thing, if not more. the large gold colored noumit records badge i believe is not for real either, it's too soft. and it says 14k. thanks, and hh,

 

[GRAY GHOST]

i asked a jeweler friend of mine several years back about soaking gold in bleach to determine if it was real or not. he said this: never soak gold of any kind in bleach. it causes a slow chemical reaction that breaks gold down over time, and is irreversible. once the reaction starts, no amount of rinsing will help it. it creates some kind of acid, can't quite remember what the name of it is. thanks, and i hope it helps. spread the word! hh,

 

[jim tn]

THANKS, I didn't get around to doing it anyway. The faucet prodding won out. HH jim tn