What Does Real Gold Flakes Look Like

However just because it looks like gold and is in the same place as gold doesn t mean that it s gold.

What does real gold flakes look like.

Pyrite has a brassy color. Get a piece of copper and try to scratch the copper with the gold. Most native gold is alloyed with silver and if the silver content is high enough the specimen will have a whitish yellow color. Nuggets or small flakes of gold are usually bright and untarnished.

You will distinctly see the gold looks like gold and the pyrite does not. Real gold in nature can come in many different forms not just as gold nuggets. In fact the piece with gold colored particles inside may even be lighter than your other piece of quartz if the gold is not real. Gold has a golden to yellow color.

Pyrite is harder than copper. Gold look very different than most other minerals but many people still confuse it. What does gold ore really look like. Real gold weighs about 1 5 times more than fool s gold or iron pyrite.

Real gold also leaves a gold streak when scratched against a small bit of unglazed ceramic like the back of a piece of bathroom tile but iron pyrite leaves a greenish black colored streak. Most specimens of pyrite found in nature will have at least some tarnish on their surface. But real gold stays bright even when out of direct sunlight and though soft does not fall apart when you touch it like fool s gold can. Fool s gold scratches glass whereas real gold does not.

If it scratches it s pyrite. Gold will look either rounded or sometimes flat. What does natural raw gold look like in rocks. Gold shines at any angle not just when the light is right.

It can also be crystalline mixed with quartz fine flakes and dust. The edges will look sharp and it may separate in layers. Iron pyrite is attracted to magnets but real gold is not magnetic. Most people have no idea what to look for and even if they do find gold they might throw it out accidentally.

If you do have real gold be careful with this test. Gold panning whether it s professional or recreational is supposed to yield gold flakes and nuggets washed out of the soil. Fool s gold and other minerals that look like gold will not produce a weight difference between the pieces of quartz. If the grains are large enuf to see with a good.

Pyrite will usually break along crystal faces so it tends to be very blocky looking like tiny dice. I am using a light source to show the difference between gold which shines and pyrite which sparkles.