Originally Posted by MDawg View Post
To the TRAINED eye:
pure gold has a more rich yellow color. Gold plated items might have a different shade, often a bit paler or slightly different in hue. Also, solid gold tends to have a more uniform shine and luster compared to plated items, which could fade or appear dull in certain areas.

Especially when you're talking about something like a watch, especially one that has been owned and worn for a while (like mine), plated would look pretty bad compared to solid.


In the same way that a trained eye may tell by just looking the composition of the gold, for example 14K, 18K, and what sort of alloys might be in there, or the difference between platinum and 18K white gold, so the trained eye may detect plated, especially on something like a watch.


Yes, to be certain you'd test, but doesn't mean that visually those bogus gold tone fake watches wouldn't give themselves right away.
The only reason plating will have different colors depends on purity. Then whatever other metals make up the mix. Example being Krugerrands are alloyed with copper giving them a pinkish hue. American eagles are alloyed with silver giving them a brighter whiter finish. Canadian Maples are pure giving them the appearance of natural yellow gold.

If an experienced person could tell an item was plated just by looking at it then gold jewelry buyers wouldn't be spending $30k on x-ray spectrometers.

By the way that Sigma you posted a pic of doesn't perform a density test for verification. You need to upgrade to the Sigma Pro because there's tons of fakes out there that can show good on the original Sigma.....RIP