Melting them down can be a problem for most people, though, especially in fine flake. It can blow away, burn, combine into organometallics and be lost in the smoke, etc. If you aren’t familiar with doing it you probably shouldn’t try, especially for the first try. You will most likely lose most of it.

Try using a propane torch to melt gold. The gold should be placed into a crucible. Then, put the crucible on a fireproof surface, and direct a torch toward the gold within the crucible. If you add the chemical borax to the gold first, you can melt it at lower temperatures, which might be needed if you’re using a torch.

Gold and Silver Coins It is illegal to sell the melted-down metal for profit, but coin pressing and creative endeavors such as jewelry making are legal. Gold and silver coins are circulated less than pennies and nickels, and the demand for them is low.

Ask local jewelers if they are interested in buying your gold flakes if you only have a small amount. Jewelers hang on to gold scraps when they do things like resize rings or repair chains, then sell them to a refinery when they’ve collected a significant amount. You may have some luck selling your gold to a jeweler.

Don’t underestimate the value of your flakes. As described, bottled gold flakes are only very little money worth but only some pieces of real mined gold flakes can be worth a few hundred dollars. Sometimes gold flakes were bought countless years before by a deceased relative.

Tilt the pan repeatedly in a gentle, circular motion to draw the remaining sand away from the gold, which will be concentrated at one edge of the pan. Remove the larger pieces of gold by hand and pick out the flakes with tweezers.

Rub a magnet over the gold dust or gold flakes. Gold is not magnetic, so if it is real and not mixed with other metals, it will not stick to the magnet. Drop the gold flakes into nitric acid. Unlike other metals, gold is not affected by nitric acid.