Thrift Flipping: How to Spot Real Gold

Charity shops are full of costume jewellery — and, occasionally, of solid gold someone did not recognise. We spent a month in second-hand shops with a loupe and a magnet to build a reliable routine for telling them apart.

The Three First Checks

Hallmarks. Look for tiny stamps — 375, 585, 750, 916 or 999 plus a maker's mark. Real gold is almost always stamped.
The magnet test. Gold is not magnetic. If a magnet grabs it, it is not solid gold.
Weight in the hand. Gold feels dense and cold for its size. Plated pieces feel light and warm quickly.

Stamped, heavy, unmagnetic. Two of three is a clue, all three is a find.

Going Deeper

Test	What it tells you	Reliability
Loupe for hallmarks	Purity stamp present	High
Magnet	Not base metal	High
Rub on unglazed tile	Gold leaves gold streak	Medium
Acid test kit	Confirms karat	Definitive

A £5 acid test kit turns guesswork into certainty. For anything you plan to sell on, it is worth buying before you spend real money.

The score

9.3/10

The hallmark-and-magnet routine spotted genuine gold twice in a month of ordinary browsing. Cheap, quick and it turns every charity shop into a treasure hunt.

We loved

Fast, needing no kit
Catches most fakes
Turns thrifting into a game

Not so much

Not definitive without acid
Great finds are rare

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