What Does Real Gold Flakes Look Like

Fool s gold scratches glass whereas real gold does not.

What does real gold flakes look like.

Gold will look either rounded or sometimes flat. What does natural raw gold look like in rocks. Gold panning whether it s professional or recreational is supposed to yield gold flakes and nuggets washed out of the soil. 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.

If you do have real gold be careful with this test. Gold look very different than most other minerals but many people still confuse it. Iron pyrite is attracted to magnets but real gold is not magnetic. Pyrite is harder than copper.

You will distinctly see the gold looks like gold and the pyrite does not. Pyrite will usually break along crystal faces so it tends to be very blocky looking like tiny dice. However just because it looks like gold and is in the same place as gold doesn t mean that it s gold. If the grains are large enuf to see with a good.

Most specimens of pyrite found in nature will have at least some tarnish on their surface. If you look closely you will also notice that the large rock that the gold ring gold nugget and gold rock are sitting on has very sharp fractured and angular shape. I am using a light source to show the difference between gold which shines and pyrite which sparkles. Fool s gold can be mistaken for placer gold gold found as rounded or flat nuggets in dry and wet stream beds and rivers or creeks because they both look golden.

Gold shines at any angle not just when the light is right. Most people have no idea what to look for and even if they do find gold they might throw it out accidentally. Pyrite has a brassy color. Real gold weighs about 1 5 times more than fool s gold or iron pyrite.

Nuggets or small flakes of gold are usually bright and untarnished. The edges will look sharp and it may separate in layers. Get a piece of copper and try to scratch the copper with the gold. Real gold in nature can come in many different forms not just as gold nuggets.

If it scratches it s pyrite. Gold has a golden to yellow color. Most native gold is alloyed with silver and if the silver content is high enough the specimen will have a whitish yellow color. What does gold ore really look like.

In this video you will learn about gold bearing rock identification. 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.