NEVER Get Fooled by Fake Gold Again, Try This Old Digger's Trick

That pan full of glitter that goes dull the second you carry it into the shade? That's mica, and just about everybody gets caught by it once. Old Col shows you seven ways to tell real gold from fool's gold and the other fakes, with a pin, a loupe, a white tile and the kitchen scales. You won't need acid or mercury. Old Col's books on finding gold and staying legal: https://oldcolsgold.com/yt US$27 each, or US$57 for all three. Instant PDF download, with a 30-day money-back guarantee. No book can promise you gold. THE SEVEN WAYS 1. The shade test. Get the pan out of the sun (your hat or your own shadow will do) and tilt it slowly. Real gold looks the same from every angle and has a soft, buttery glow. Pyrite and mica flash when the light hits them, then go dull or nearly disappear. Gold glows. It's the fakes that sparkle. 2. What gold really looks like in the pan. Mostly small flat flakes with soft rounded edges, not nuggets. It sinks straight away and sits at the tail of the black sand while the sand moves round it. Gold with a bit of silver in it comes out paler than you'd expect, so judge it on how it behaves, not its colour. 3. Mica. Thin, flaky stuff, and weathered dark mica can go brown or even yellow. Swirl the pan and it lifts off the bottom and rides round in the water. It breaks up under a pin, and it goes dull in the shade. 4. Pyrite and chalcopyrite. Pyrite is pale brass and grows in sharp little cubes with fine lines on the faces. Chalcopyrite is a deeper yellow that tarnishes grey-green or purple and blue. Pyrite is about five times as heavy as water, so it can stay in your pan with the black sand. Heavy doesn't mean gold. Under a pin, gold dents like soft lead, pyrite shatters and chalcopyrite crumbles. They streak greenish black where gold streaks yellow. Gold doesn't come in cubes. 5. Read a nugget's shape. Rough and knobbly with quartz still on it usually means the source isn't far away. Smooth, rounded and polished with the quartz worn off means it has come a long way. 6. Gold in rock, and the rust that isn't gold. Gold you can see in quartz is usually scales and specks along the cracks, or small blobs in the holes. Rusty staining is iron oxide: dull and earthy with no metal shine, and it streaks yellowish brown. Tiny pyrite crystals in quartz fool people too. Loupe, shade, then the pin, in that order. Three extras before number seven: For detector folk: a tiny bit of gold can sound just like foil or a lead pellet of the same size and depth, and old goldfields are full of shotgun pellets and old bullets. Dig everything and check the hole again. Lead dents like gold but it's grey. Brass and copper go green with age. Gold doesn't tarnish. One pan start to finish, every test in order. Most days you'll go home with a few colours in the vial, or nothing, and a better eye for what isn't gold. Fill your holes before you leave. Before you keep anything, check the rules where you are: your licence or permit, whose land it is, and stay off active claims. Don't lick your rocks or grind them up. Some of the lookalikes carry arsenic and lead. 7. The fakes made on purpose. Copper nuggets with gold plated on, cast lead, nuggets poured from old jewellery, painted rocks. Scratch it somewhere nobody will see: plating and paint wear through to a different colour. A magnet proves nothing, because plenty of fakes won't stick either. Then the kitchen scales density test. Weigh it dry. Sit a cup of water on the scales, zero them, and hang the piece in the water on a thread without touching the sides or bottom. Divide the dry weight by that reading. Pure gold comes out near 19, 22 carat about 18, 9 carat about 11.5 to 12, lead about 11 and copper under 9. Quartz and plating throw the number off, and tungsten is nearly as heavy as gold for its size, so use all the tests together. A number in the middle, or anything worth real money, gets an assay. Buy from a prospector or seller with a good name. Has mica caught you out yet? Type mica in the comments if it has. Next time: the old diggings. Why the old diggers left so much gold behind, how to read what they left, and which heap to walk to first. Chapters 0:00 Mica fools everyone 0:42 The shade test 1:56 Flakes, not nuggets 3:23 How mica gives itself away 4:24 Pyrite and chalcopyrite 5:49 Reading a nugget's shape 7:37 Gold in quartz vs rust 8:31 Three extras 10:53 Fake nuggets and the scales test Old Col is an AI character created by JS Media. The prospecting tips are real and sourced.