gold : debased jewelry

By Jim Avila
ABC News / "20/20"
December 17, 2004

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=336457&page=1

If you're shopping for gold jewelry -- or hoping to receive some --
this holiday season, you may end up paying for gold but getting
glorified tinsel. How can you be sure you're getting the real thing?

"20/20" went on a gold-buying spree -- with hidden cameras rolling --
at jewelry stores and markets in Dallas, Maryland, Virginia and New
York City and learned that if you're not careful you may end up
buying "fools' gold."

In each store, "20/20" shoppers asked to look at gold jewelry that
was at least 10-karat, and the clerks were quick to promise that it
was. All of the clerks even agreed to put it in writing.

"20/20" asked for that guarantee, because anything less than 10
karats — or about 42 percent real gold — can't legally be
sold as gold in this country.

"Anything under 10 karat in the United States is a pretty yellow
metal, bit it's not gold," said Cecilia Gardener of the Jewelers
Vigilance Committee. She says shoppers can easily be ripped off by
watered-down gold.

"Just looking at a piece of jewelry, you're not going to be able to
tell the difference between nine karat and 10 karat," Gardener said.

With sales of gold jewelry soaring -- reaching $16 billion in 2003 --
attorneys general in several states found under-karating to be a
common problem. The worst cheating apparently occurs with the less
expensive 10-karat and 14-karat pieces.

"Stores that scream out 'discount, discount, discount' -- these are
the kinds of stores where we have found the problem really
predominates," Gardener said.

"20/20" took its newly purchased gold to the American Assay and
Gemological Office, the lab that does quality assurance checks on
jewelry from Tiffany's. Lab workers tested the jewelry with the most
sophisticated methods of both X-ray and fire assay, which involves
melting down the jewelry to separate out the different metals. Good
Housekeeping magazine oversaw the test and reviewed the results for
good measure.

In addition to the gold "20/20" producers purchased, Michelle and
Michael Williams of Delaware also offered up two gold bracelets they
had bought on a recent vacation for testing.

They said they were told the jewelry was 14-karat gold, but when
they got it home they had an unpleasant surprise.

"I was wearing the anklet and it started to make my leg a little
black," Michelle Williams said.

After putting it to the test, "20/20" learned the anklet was only
4.8 percent gold. The gold wrist bracelet was 7.39 percent gold, 83
percent nickel, with a little bit of copper mixed in as well.

Both pieces were far below the minimum government standard for 10-
karat gold. In fact, the large amount of nickel used in the jewelry
may have caused Michelle Williams' allergic reaction. The bottom
line: Their jewelry was nothing more than gold-plated.

"20/20" didn't fare much better with its jewelry purchases. "20/20"
shoppers were cheated in more than half of the 22 jewelry stores
they visited — from Dallas to Maryland to New York.

At one jewelry shop in New York, a "20/20" shopper bought some what
was supposedly 10-karat bling-bling. Upon testing, it turned out to
be only eight-karat.

Down the street, salespeople at another shop had confidently
sold "20/20" three gold charms, even guaranteeing them. But
when "20/20" returned to the store and told the manager that one of
guaranteed charms was not real gold, he was unconcerned. He blamed
the problem on his supplier.

At another New York jewelry store across town, "20/20" found not
only under-karated gold, but also an apparent ignorance of the
law. "20/20" had purchased three pendants there, and not one tested
as legal gold — each was one karat shy of 10. The manager didn't
think that was a problem, saying she couldn't test every piece of
jewelry.

Fakes can fool your eye, but here are a few things you can do while
buying gold this holiday season:

* Buy from someone you know or with a solid reputation.

* Look for a store with a quality-assurance program that tests its
own pieces for purity.

* You don't have to shop at Tiffany's to go for the real gold. Major
department stores like Wal-Mart, Sears, and JC Penney all have
testing programs too.

* If the piece has a trademark, like Nike or a sports team logo, it
must have a license stamp on the back. If jewelry makers are willing
to steal a trademark, experts say, they may be willing to short you
on gold.

* Look at the workmanship. If the edges are frayed, or it just looks
cheap, it probably is under-karated.

And if you really want to make sure you've got legitimate gold, you
can have your pieces X-rayed at a quality-assurance lab, like the
one "20/20" used, for around $20.