How do you test gold and silver if at a yard sale or in a public place?

Answer 1

The simplest test for gold is its softness; pure gold is much softer than other gold colored metals, or gold plated metals. That is why, in the good old days, people used to bite gold coins, to see how much resistance the coin gave to their teeth (but be careful if you do this, you can break a tooth on an unexpectedly hard brass coin). Silver has a distinctive whitish color that is different from that of any other metal, although of course, if you see something the color of silver it still might just be silver plated. There is no test you can do in a public place that will adequately distinguish between solid silver and silver plating. It is, however, still true that pure silver will be softer than a silver plated object - but the softness is not nearly as great as that of gold, so it is harder to tell.