After suggestions on my Facebook page, I took the coil to a local jeweller, to see if I could have it tested. He was unable to tell me whether the wire was plated or filled, however he did note that the wire was not flaking, which would be a sure sign of plating. He did take the coil for me, and polished it up using some Tripoli and a buffing wheel. You can see the result in the picture - top half, shiny, as I would expect it to be. Bottom half, dull.
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All in all, I must assume that the wire is gold-filled, and this is a puzzle. Does anyone have any suggestions for tumbling gold-filled? Anything different that needs to be done compared to sterling (remembering, however, that the first lot were tumbled in the same tumbler load, so I would have expected them both to be affected)? I have also put more feelers out to see what comes back, so there may be another update yet! At this point, I am assuming that it is gold-filled, and that I will have to attempt to polish it before I can use it.
