Gold Posts?

[Piledriver]

We went to a community yard sale (actually about 6 sales in one block) and at one of them the lady says, "up there in the yellow house....she's got loads of jewelry".

Ok, so the yellow house it is. And I find a couple small pieces of 925, and a pendant with chain LOOKS like gold. I remembered to check it with the magnet 20 minutes later, and it smacked the magnet like it was hungry for it.

Anyway....I get home and the testing starts. I look at a white bone-looking ear-bob, and it has a very gold-looking post.

So I check it...and it's 14K. And then I find another one!

How many of you guys knew that some non-pm ear-thingys have gold posts?

 

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[batcap]

I knew it from bitter experience, but I don't get it. Maybe it's easier to electroplate the the whole assembly. For any reasonably modern jewelry I expect to find the karat mark stamped on the post. That is incredibly small for most people over 50 to see with the naked eye. Somewhere around the house I have a pair of earrings that say "1/20 14K" on the post. I paid too much for them, because "I see something on the post- that must mean it's valuable". And that is when I started shopping for the best triplet I could afford. I still have my "Belomo" loupe, now with three tiny rare earth magnets stuck to it. It is by far the best treasure hunting tool I have - even more than test acids or electronic gold tester.

 

[Beachkid23]

I might be wrong. But I think a lot of it is just allergies. Stuff made back in the 70s or earlier you could put a gold post on something because gold was way cheap. If you wanted somebody to buy your product more than likely they would buy it because of the Golden earring back or post if they were allergic to the regular cheap metal. But I'm thinking stuff maybe sold in department stores or malls versus something sold at a store like Kmart.

 

[mugsisme]

I've had stuff from the 50s-70s with gold posts and disgusting, ugly beads on them. So what? Scrap is scrap, right? Just make sure you verify. I had a pair of "pearl" beads with posts stamped 14K. I tested it, fine. Jeweler xrayed them, not gold; GP.