One of the ways is to melt it down, but of course it will destroy the jewellery. After you melt it, you will need to bring it to a metal analysis company that can split the metals apart, and analyse the quantity of gold in the clump of metal.

You also can take it to a pawn shop that buys gold. They will test it. It is really simple, and some shops wont even charge you. It only takes a couple of minutes.

Take the ring to a jewelry store and have an acid test done it is simeple will not hurt the ring and cheap to do. It will tell you the carat of gold. Just go to your local goldsmith. It's a simple, 5 second acid test and it determines immediately if it's gold, and what karat. We do it all the time. No charge at most places, as well. The jeweller uses a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid. The ring is gently scratched onto a "touchstone", and then a couple of needles of known karat are also rubbed onto the stone. The aqua regia dissolves the alloy immediately, leaving the gold, and the higher the karat, the more yellow the mark left (though it eventually all dissolves).

Take the ring to a reputable jewler, other than the one you bought it from. Ask to have a carat test done it will let you know if it is gold and the carat of the gold. 24 carat being pure 10 carat being the lowest that can be legally called gold in the USA.

If the gold is real the molacules in the gold will be more packed together which makes it heavy. However, if the gold is fake the molacules will not be as tight and not very heavy. If you place real gold in water it will probably sink and displace water if its in a jug. If its not real gold it will probably float. It's all about density and how much water is displaced.

A very simple way to tell if somehting is real gold is to put some foundation and face powder on the back of your hand and then rub the gold against it. If a black mark is left behind it is real gold. Real gold creates a chemical reaction with most makeup that fake gold will not.

One easy way to find out weather gold is fake or not.... put a magnet really close, if it sticks even a little its all fake and BS. Real gold will not show any affect toward magnets, I work for a jewlers company, so I know this stuff.

Usually if a piece of jewelry is gold it will be stamped with the stamp 14k or 12K stamp on the inside of a ring, on a clasp or a necklace etc. If it is a chain, "pile" the chain in a messy pile real gold chain will not "kink".