A lot of people get caught out when trying to buy discounted jewellery, thinking that they got some quality stuff when in fact they’ve been ripped off with some costume jewellery. Experts can usually tell immediately whether something is fake or not, but this is a bit more tricky for your average laymen.

A common occurrence with jewellery which is fake is that when in contact with skin for an extended period of time your skin will begin to turn green. This is due to a chemical reaction between the acids on your skin and the contents of the metal, and is a sure sign that what you have isn’t real gold.

In order to avoid getting ripped off, you need to look for some basic, easy to spot signs of jewellery being fake. Firstly, check for a stamp. Most precious metal productions will have a stamp placed on them to indicate the quality and contents of the metal. Secondly, check the weight, and see if any of the stones are fake. This is more difficult, but if you have some familiarity with gold, then you should be able to tell when it is costume gold. Likewise, stones are always imperfect, so if there are no imperfections in the “stone”, then you know it’s fake.