Home try-on: what happens when we visit
Who comes, what they bring, how long it takes and what you need to keep ready for a visit in Coimbatore.
What an XRF test tells you about old gold
How the machine reads purity in a minute, why nothing is melted, and how your old gold credit is worked out.
The most common worry we hear about exchanging old gold is that the shop will say it is worth less than you expected, and that you will have no way to check. The XRF machine at our counter is how we answer that worry.
XRF stands for X-ray fluorescence. You place the piece on a small window in the machine, and for about sixty seconds it reads the surface and shows the percentage of gold, silver, copper and zinc on a screen facing you. Nothing is scraped, cut or melted, and the piece comes back to you exactly as it was.
The reading is turned into a carat value. Gold that reads 91.6% is 22K, 87.5% is 21K and 75% is 18K. Many older family pieces read 20K or 21K, because they were made before purity was checked as closely as it is now. We weigh the piece, multiply by the percentage, and credit that net gold at the morning’s 22K rate, adjusted for purity. We do not deduct anything for melting loss or wear.
There are limits worth knowing. XRF reads the surface, so a heavily plated or hollow piece may need a second test at a few points. Stones, lac and wax filling in old jhumkas are weighed and removed from the calculation, and we show you how. Everything is written on the exchange slip before you agree. If you just want to know what a piece is worth, the test is free. You do not have to exchange anything.
