How does the Karat Check work?
When you sell your gold to us at MittGuld, we want you to feel confident that you are getting exactly the right payment. That's why we use the industry's most modern and secure method to check your gold purity: XRF X-ray. No guesswork, no acid – just exact science.
Traditional methods and their shortcomings
In the past (and at many smaller gold dealers even today), the 'scratch test' with a touchstone and acid is used. The gold is scratched against a black stone, and acid of varying strength is dropped on the mark. If the metal reacts (dissolves), the purity is lower; if it doesn't react, it is higher. The problems:
• The result is approximate and depends on the technician's experience.
• The scratch mark permanently damages the jewelry.
• The method cannot identify alloy metals (e.g. palladium in white gold).
• The result can easily be manipulated by false alloy layers.
A customer with an 18K white gold piece alloyed with expensive palladium can lose hundreds of kroner if a dishonest dealer fails to identify the palladium content.
Our method: XRF X-ray Analysis
We have invested in advanced XRF instruments (X-ray fluorescence). The method is gentle, fast, and incredibly precise. The instrument sends a focused, harmless X-ray beam at the jewelry's surface. Metal atoms in the piece absorb the energy and emit a characteristic secondary X-ray radiation back. Each element produces a unique 'fingerprint' of secondary radiation that the machine reads.
The result is a complete elemental analysis in seconds – we see exactly how much gold, silver, copper, zinc, palladium, platinum, and other elements the piece contains, down to the per mille level. No other method delivers such accurate results without damaging the item.
Why is this important to you?
With our XRF technology, we don't have to guess. The consequences for you as a customer are clear:
• Correct payment for unusual purities: If you have jewelry with an unusual karat purity (e.g. 17K or 20K), the XRF machine identifies the exact value and you are not shortchanged by an unnecessarily low estimate.
• Palladium bonus: White gold jewelry often contains palladium as an alloy. Our XRF analysis detects this and we pay you for the palladium content, not just the gold.
• Protection against underpayment: Since we always show you the measurement results, you can see exactly what we base our valuation on. Full transparency.
• Unstamped items: Jewelry without stamps, foreign pieces, or inherited items without certificates are assessed just as fairly as stamped pieces – we trust the machine, not the mark.
Sell your gold safely & securely
Order one of our insured return envelopes. We do an exact karat check with XRF X-ray so you always get the best price for your gold.