Magnet for testing gold

Practical magnet with wooden handle as an aid for testing the authenticity of gold.

Pure gold is slightly diamagnetic, which means that it is weakly repelled by a strong magnet. If you hold a strong neodymium magnet to pure gold, you should not feel any attraction - on the contrary, there may even be a slight repulsion.

With alloys, this effect is significantly weaker or disappears completely. Some metals in the alloy can even be magnetic. If the piece is attracted by the magnet, it is not pure gold. However, the magnetic test is not very meaningful for simple alloys, as non-magnetic metals may also be present.

Note: The magnetic test is only a rough guide and does not replace a professional authenticity test.