OES small pin rose and yellow gold?

[graciec620]

 

 

I know it’s vintage. It’s small weighing at about 2 grams. The thing that’s stumping me are the leaves on the front and why the pin is marked 10k 12k. Are the leaves perhaps rose gold and are 12 k or are they something else entirely. I do know the star has enamel that has been worn off.  Thank for you help. 

 

[idealgems1]

Black Hills Gold jewelry was often done in 12 karat gold rather than 10K or 14K.  Here, they have almost certainly taken a 10K Eastern Star emblem they purchased from a manufacturer and added it to their 12K gold leaves and frame.   The pin stem and catch are clearly a non-precious base metal.

I would warn you also that solid 12K leaves and grapes were often added to gold filled jewelry.  It is possible that the frame is gold filled, the leaves are 12K, and the emblem is 10K.  But if this were the case, it SHOULD have been stamped with some sort of a "GF" or "1/20" stamp as well.  

The frame could be tested with traditional means, but an XRF device could easily tell you what you need to know about every part of the piece.

[graciec620]

Wow! Thank you. I did know the finding wasn’t gold. But now I’m hesitant about the rest of the piece. I don’t have an XRF device and seriously doubt I’ll ever get one given the cost. It seems like acid testing just confuses the whole process if the area is GP or GF unless I want to file into the piece. I shudder thinking about that because it’s so small anyway. One mark like that could damage the pin. I guess I could wander into a local jeweler and ask them to analyze the piece but it’s so small I truly doubt it’s worth it.  

[idealgems1 · Accepted solution]

I think you'd be perfectly safe selling it as 10K gold with 12K accents and base metal findings without testing it.  You would be relying on the manufacturer's mark and going beyond by pointing out the pin stem and catch.

If you were to assume the entire piece was 10K, 100% of scrap melt value would be about $27 per gram right now.  It is not a highly collectable designer piece, so I agree there is no need to get crazy with overly scrutinizing it.