How to know pearl clasp is solid 14K Gold

Clasp on the pearl strand is very important and aslo can reflect the value of the pearl. Usually high quality pearl strand is always securely ended with solid gold clasp. These days, I found that many sellers described their clasps as solid 14K gold but comes with usually very bad quality pearl strands from photos and sell extremely low price. So beware! But how to tell the clasp is solid gold or other type of metal? 14k means gold accounts for 58.5% of the total. So solid 14k clasp should stamped with14K or 585. If there is no any letter or figure on the clasp, that wouldn`t be solid 14k glod. Sometimes you will see1/20 14K, 14K/20, 14K 1/20 stamped on the clasp, that is gold plated but not solid gold. It means among the whole clasp, only 5% (1/20) is 14K. Usually, GP will be found on clasp which indicates it is gold plated. By the way, gold clasp costs around 1/10 of solid gold one price.        

Oriental Pearls