You can also try thrusting a fingernail through your gold in the gold pan. On the other hand, you can tell if your gold nugget is pyrite if it has jagged or sharp edges since it is made of crystals. Real gold has smooth ones but bumpy texture due to hitting and tumbling through debris, rocks, rivers, and streams. Here are some characteristics that can tell you the difference between real gold and fool’s gold:įeel the gold nugget’s edges. Fortunately, there are various ways to identify raw gold nuggets from pyrite. Any inexperienced gold buyer or prospector can be fooled into thinking this mineral as something precious and valuable. Fool’s gold, also known as pyrite, looks a lot like natural gold, but it is worth virtually nothing.
