Ancient gold and silver appraisal starts from two aspects

The authenticity of ancient gold and silverware identification includes two aspects. One is to identify the texture of its materials. First of all, it is to determine whether the artifacts are gold or silver, that is, the qualitative problem; once again, it is necessary to clarify the content of gold and silver. problem. The second is the identification of its manufacturing age.

1, to see the color of gold jewelry color (gold content) is different, the presentation of the color is also different, gold is red and yellow is better, the color in more than 95%; the color of yellow is about 80%, the color of green and yellow is about 70%, yellow and white Slightly gray is about 50%. As the saying goes: Qiqing, Huanghuang, 95, and Huang, and Huangbai and Baidai are both ash and half gold, while the color of ancient goldsmiths is generally about 60% to 95%, with the exception of the early gold ornaments. Gao Wai, the rest are about 80%, mainly to improve its hardness, easy to seal, processing.

2. The touchstone is made of stone or siliceous rock and is cooked in goose blood or goose soup. It becomes a black touchstone. The gold is stroked on the top and the acid is used on the scratches. No reaction is caused by gold. Or the scratches disappear, it is other metal, and then see the color flat, oblique light, listen to the sound, you can identify the fineness. If the gold contains more silver, it will be blue on the touchstone, and it will be soft; if the copper is too hard, a stroke on the touchstone will sound. If there is a standard gold medal, it will be clearer than the scratches. At present, most banks in China and Goldsmiths use the touchstone method. This method is simple and accurate. The error is only 5/1000, which is comparable to the results of modern X-ray analysis.

3, ** method is based on the characteristics of gold corrosion resistance, the use of chemical reagents to identify a method, generally ** as a reagent. The specific method is: use a glass rod stained with a little **, and then gently applied to the artifacts, if it is gold, on the face no color change, safe and sound. This point method is often used in conjunction with the touchstone method, dropping ** on the golden trace of the touchstone, and then observing the changes in the gold mark, which can be used to clearly identify the authenticity and quality of the gold. If it is a pure gold product, there will be no bubbles or smoke. In the case of mixed gold, a rough judgement of the gold content based on the size of the reaction and the change in color requires more practical experience.

Most of the ancient gold shops in China used this method. Most banks and gold shops in the United States now use touchstones, and they are equipped with a set of known gold standards for reference.

The fire and acid drop method described above is the most effective method to identify gold and silverware, with high accuracy, but at the same time it has a greater destructive effect on gold and silverware.

4, the hardness of the test hardness of pure gold Mohs 2.8, the hardness of silver is Mohs 2.7, the same hand "pull" is also an important method, we all know that gold has good ductility, 1 gram of gold can be drawn into diameter 0.00434 mm, 3500 meters long gold wire; can be tempered to a thickness of only 0.23 nm gold foil. The higher the purity of gold, the softer the texture. Therefore, gold products are generally not easy to break, and false ones are not easily changed. If teeth are bitten, they will leave marks on the gold surface. With an ordinary pin, you can easily draw a dent. A gold object is held in your hand. If you are in a weak place or a small area, you can feel the soft texture by gently pulling it with your finger. Copper only left scratches and no dents.

If gold is added to other impurities, there is no such property. For example, adding aluminum or iron, silver, and the like, it does not become brittle and brittle, it is a great change in fineness.

5, the fire test As the saying goes "True gold is not afraid of fire", pure gold into the fire, red, out of the same color. According to the properties of gold, which is chemically stable and not easily oxidized, it can be fired. If the color changes after it is taken out, there must be impurities.

6, weight, weight, listen to the sound weight test weight: the proportion of gold is 19.3 grams per cubic centimeter, much larger than silver, copper, zinc, lead, nickel and other metals. If the volume is the same, gold is over 40% lighter than silver and 1.2 times lighter than copper. According to the inspection and determination, a piece of gold about a matchbox will have more than 1 kg in weight. Therefore, there is a saying that "inch gold, gold, inch square, is a pound." Get a piece of gold and try it out by hand to see if its size matches the weight. If it is found to be large and light, it should be suspected of being forged.

Listening to rhyme and seeing strength: According to the characteristics of high-colored gold with no sound, no rhythm, and no elasticity, throw it at a hard place and send out a humming sound without elasticity. The mixed gold has sound, rhyme, and elasticity, and the sound is sharper, the elasticity is greater, and the sound is finer. The lower it is, it may even be false money.

The imitation of ancient gold and silver devices is currently replicating the ancient gold and silver devices on the antique art market. The imitation products are mostly from Henan, Liaoning, Jiangxi, etc. The level of imitation in Luoyang, Henan Province is higher, and there are more artifacts, most of which are copper or gold. Bao Jin, this kind of relatively easy to identify, but some of them made of gold and silver as raw materials for the ancient gold and silver high imitation goods, can be spurious, in this case to be cautious. Its imitation products are summarized as follows:

1. It is mainly the discrimination of the material texture. Compared with the cultural relics of other textures, the material texture of the gold and silverware itself has an expensive economic value. Some counterfeiters are for profiteering. They are usually made of copper or imitation gold materials such as thin gold, deposits (aur gold) and other alloy materials. Their color is close to that of genuine products, but their hardness is greater than that of real gold and their weight is lower than that of genuine products.

2. The instrument type decoration is generally based on genuine products. It is mainly composed of bowls, plates, cups, spoons, gold albums and accessories, rings, bracelets, belts, etc. The beasts and the pots are the ones with larger shapes. The patterns often include dragons, phoenixes, tyrannus, temas, group flowers, bougainvillea, birds, honeysuckle, lotus seeds, hunting patterns, and the like.

3, the production process also uses the traditional manual process including casting, hammering, cutting, welding, cutting, mosaic, sheet metal, gold making method, but the process is rough, simple decoration, such as compared with genuine products, The silk reeling method and the fried pearl method include the engraving of pearls. Due to the difference in materials and processes, the actual effect is far from the actual product.

4, the imitation of larger pieces of equipment, due to the small proportion of alloy material, weight drift, to increase the weight of the general use of lead, sandwich or in the device plus heavy metal weight, to cover the eyes and ears, get mixed. However, when observing the bottom of such artifacts carefully, there is a seal left by the irrigation of lead, and the center of gravity is unstable and concentrated, such as plastic tumbler.

5. The imitation of gold and silver instruments in ancient times was based on artifacts from the Tang Dynasty, the Liao Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty. The Ming and Qing dynasties had more gold and silver artifacts than the other two dynasties. The reasons were as follows: First, the shape and ornamentation were simpler than the Tang Dynasty. Second, the production process is similar to modern technology, and individual ancient craftsmanship or loss of processing or tedious processing are deliberately avoided.

6, very few high-imitation products using real gold as raw materials to create precision, but still a small piece of jewelry or cup, spoon-based, no large equipment and processes are too complex imitation goods, may be due to the production of the cost is too high reason, Such imitations must be carefully taken care of by collectors.

Why the collection of gold and silver instruments in ancient times? Because the market prices of gold and silver are very transparent, and even the listing prices of banks around the world are unified, and they can be cashed at any time, this is a condition that other art collections do not have, so inorganics can be used Nothing can be missed, only step by step honestly with the market conditions. Ancient gold and silver devices have these properties, but there are at least two uncertainties: First, fineness: ancient gold and silver devices are mostly K gold (mixed gold), gold content between 60% -93%; Second, off generation: it How does the humanistic value and historical value contained in it itself be considered? This gives us an unlimited space for the collector's operation. The value that can be floated greatly exceeds the value of its gold and silver, even at negative values ​​up to ten times or dozens. The turmoil between times of value gives us unlimited opportunities for bleakness and enjoyable spiritual enjoyment. However, it must be remembered that the collection of ancient gold and silver instruments for investment is a “three-high” luxury collection with high investment, high risk and high returns.