One thing you desire while shopping for a nice gold Cuban Link Chain is the extensive significant value of the links and will it maintain that value or rise in the future. You observe that beautiful yellowish shine and immerse yourself in how this piece is well-designed. However, in the back of your mind you wonder, “do Cuban links hold value”?

Cuban links holds a huge amount of value since they are made with 10k-24k gold (karats), in which, 10k [41% gold – 59% alloy metals], 14k [58% gold – 43% alloy metals],  18k [67% gold – 33% alloy metals], and 24k [75% gold – 25% alloy metals]. Although the price of gold can be volatile from time to time, Cuban links are handmade with a usage of at least 5 grams of solid gold per link depending on length. 

Not all Cuban links are created equal, but they can be expensive, even for the most affordable. In fact, some are manufactured exclusively with metal alloys that contain little value. When referring to the “value” aspect of this kind of jewelry, we are mainly referencing the “gold” contents rather than silver, platinum, or other metals alloys used to create Cuban links.

You may posses a set of gold links (you haven’t noticed) at home that has potential legitimate value. Maybe your links are worth a bundle, maybe they are worthless, but aren’t you curious to know? First and foremost, in order for them to be valuable, the gold must be real. In today’s post, we break down a few useful methods you can exercise to figure out if your pieces are truly treasures.

5 Methods for Checking if Your Cuban Link “Gold” is Real or Fake

• Karat stamp – Gold with a karat stamp, for example, “14KP” means your gold is in fact real and contains at least 58% precious metal gold at 14KP. The “p” stands for “plumb” and “KP” stands for karat plumb which identifies the purity and shows the least amount of karat contents in the metal according to sellyourgold.com. Gold shipped to the U.S., from mostly European countries, would stamp their gold, called a Hallmark or marker to identify the manufacturers brand. Ask your jeweler about this before making a purchase.
• White Vinegar – Place your gold link on a flat surface or put it in the palm of your hand. Second, take a teaspoon of white vinegar and spread it across the link. During your observation, if your gold Cuban link began to experience its color change from gold to another obscure color, then your gold Cuban link(s) are fake. If the solid gold color remains intact, you have the real deal.
• Water Weight Your Metal – Fill water inside a regular sized container or use an ordinary cup. Second, remove a link from your your cuban link chain by using wire cutters(if you are comfortable about manually adjusting your chain length.) or hire a jeweler to cut it for you. Lastly, put the link in the water; if it sinks, the link is real, if the link floats, your link is fake.
• The Magnet Test – Gold is not attracted to magnets. If your Cuban link sticks to a magnet, then you do not have real solid gold, if so, your Cuban link was created with Iron, Nickel or Cobalt. If your links do not stick to magnetic materials, your gold is certainly real.
• Karat Metal Controller – Jewelers use these contraptions in their field of work to test the karats contents to confirm the amounts and grams for the jewelry. A karat metal tester isn’t limited to the public. In fact, you can purchase one for yourself, such as, the M-24 Mizar from Amazon and begin testing your own pieces at home.

Where Do the Metals Come From?

Another way you can learn if your Cuban link has value is understanding where the metal come from and is the marker description imprinted on your jewelry. Gold metals and several others are imported from several countries, most are European. Precious metal companies that manufacture Gold would use their brand name marker and stamp to identify apart from other brands.

Before you buy a Cuban link chain, identify its value by viewing the small stamp description near the clamp area. If it does contain a 14kp, 18ko, or 24kp stamp with the exception of having the manufacturers company marker stamp, then you have possession of something that is “real” therefore, it has an attached market “value”.

As a tip, ask your jeweler about the manufacturer that they do business with for approximate clarity of the jewelry’s value. The brands use, what the call, “markers” to tell the difference between other competing manufacturers. Last but not least, I present to you a list of precious metal manufactures that you might find interesting.

Look Up Paying Customer Reviews

Have you ever heard, “the customer is always right”. If you review the experience and journey of others, you will learn something new and avoid a couple of hardships during your search. You receive all of this knowledge from the best places to buy and recommendations in reviews and tips that several customers leave behind.

Customers will post information on certain type of jewelry they’ve acquired, if it may be valuable or not. The trick to obtaining useful information including details on jeweler reputations, those who collect treasurable Cuban links and more, join conversations in different online social network communities.  Here’s a few helpful resources to check out so you can get out there and converse with others right away.

• Google Company Reviews – Jewelry stores list their companies in directories, social media, and most of a Google. Research a company by simply googling the jeweler company’s name, you will receive a lot of feedback through real world reviews and responses about that customers personal experience with that brand. This comes in the form of 1-5 stars, and post reviews that may be negative or positive.
• Yelp.com – Yelp isn’t only a business directory, they also allow customers outlook of each company listed on their platform. As a matter of fact, Yelp was one of the first websites to help buyers make an educated decision to give a business a try, from jewelry store owners to restaurants around the corner nearby.
• Facebook.com Groups – Everyone has a Facebook these days. Simply, start a group about real gold Cuban link jewelry or join groups that talks about valuable jewelry that is made of rare metals. Start discussions about real gold jewelry or ask questions within groups about subjects that interest you the most. That includes recommendations on where to purchase jewelry made with precious metals. There are people out there who trade gold worth hundreds of thousands that will love assisting you on what to do about learning about the best Cuban links on the market, testing, and much more.

In closing, a Cuban link has value if you purchased it from a jewelry store that receives imports from reputable precious metal manufacturers. Utilize the methods we have displayed here to learn nature of each Cuban link you’ve collected overtime.