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When gold jewellery does not contain enough gold

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ST20220907-202203019175-Lim Yaohui-Tan Ooi Boon-obtest/
Testing of gold jewellery at Singapore Precious Metal Exchange (SGPMX) at Le Freeport on Sept 07, 2022.
Feature on how gold is 'tested' before it is bought. Most retailers charge up to 20 per cent commission to buy back gold whereas SGPMX only takes a 0.5 commission. Also in a jewellery-like chain, the consumer may not realise that not every part is gold - the hook and the connecting wires etc may not be gold - in short sometimes consumers may get cheated.
(ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI)

SGPMX chief executive and founder Victor Foo would test every piece of jewellery that he buys to give them an indicative purity of their pieces.

ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

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SINGAPORE - It’s true enough that all that glitters is not gold, but it can be far harder to know just what you are buying when you do splash out on the precious yellow metal. We can judge on appearance and weight, but neither tells you how much gold there is until you use X-ray scanners or get a refinery to extract the precious metal.

The result can be rather disconcerting because most people won’t bother to check the authenticity of their jewellery until they need to sell it.

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