{"id":1908,"date":"2022-11-06T09:00:21","date_gmt":"2022-11-06T14:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/?p=1908"},"modified":"2024-01-13T14:57:57","modified_gmt":"2024-01-13T19:57:57","slug":"what-exactly-is-fools-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/what-exactly-is-fools-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"WHAT EXACTLY IS “FOOLS GOLD?”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"What<\/div>\n

Yes ‘fool’s gold’ is real gold.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nRun out and buy tons of it.<\/p>\n

I kid…<\/h2>\n

\nYou know what I’m thinking?<\/strong> I’m thinking that if you could just walk into any nature store and buy a box of ‘real gold<\/strong>‘ for $6.00<\/strong>… there’d be none left. Sold out.<\/strong> End of story.<\/p>\n

\nBut the funny thing is, if you did buy some ‘fool’s gold<\/strong>‘, you may still be buying ‘real gold<\/strong>‘.<\/p>\n

\nLet’s find out how…<\/p>\n

Fool’s gold is actually a mineral called ‘pyrite’.<\/h2>\n

\nPyrite is otherwise known as ‘iron sulfide<\/strong>‘. It’s a combination of 44.6% iron and 53.4% sulfur. Pyrite is greek for ‘fire’<\/strong>. Why fire? Because when you strike pyrite with a steel flint, it’ll spark like crazy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Let the fireworks begin…<\/h2>\n

\nEarly fireworks and firearms used pyrite for its explosive visuals and big bangs. During the 1848 California gold rush<\/strong>, lots of fools were born. Miners with get-rich-quick schemes were in for embarrassing failures and quickly learned that fool’s gold was hopelessly and totally worthless. <\/strong>Little did the miners know that pyrite is normally found around deposits of copper and gold. If they had only kept digging, they really could have struck it rich<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Cheap imposters:<\/h2>\n

\nBut the brassy, gold, glitter got the best of them. A quick test could have confirmed pyrite as a cheap impostor<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\nIf they would have rubbed the hard stone into the rock, it would have crumbled and dissolved into a greenish-black powder<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\nFunny that fool’s gold can turn into a powder, you wouldn’t think so because it’s so hard. It’s hard, but very brittle at the same time. The poor cleavage lines make it almost impossible to work with it. That’s why common uses for it are none other than car batteries,<\/strong> because pyrite produced sulfur dioxide.<\/p>\n

\nKind of a long ways away from the “oohs and aahs<\/strong>” of pretty little fireworks<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Pyrite’s metallic luster<\/h2>\n

\nPyrite has a luster, almost like a dull gold, but it loses most of its sparkle the second it hits air.<\/p>\n

\nFool’s gold has been mined all over the World in exotic places like Siberia, Russia and South Africa, but also it’s been mined in our own backyards, like Canada, South Dakota and of course, California (where lots of fools were born).<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nOn the MOHS scale<\/strong> (a scale that tests the hardness of minerals) pyrite or fools gold is rated a 6 – 6.5<\/strong>. As a comparison, let’s look at the hardness of other common things:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n