has anyone removed gold plating from silver jewelry?

[watchesandwhisky]

i have a nice 4 troy ounce bracelet thats gold plated silver, most of the gold has now worn of but some remains id like to try and remove, has anyone done this ? i see it can be done chemically but wondered if anyone has tried to do it.

[Pete]

My wife succeeded in getting the gold plating off our new bathroom taps using normal household cleaners.

You know the ones - they say do NOT use on gold etc.

[Ares]

Aqua Regia, mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acid. Nitric acid creates a simultaneous removal and addition of gold particles from the block in an equilibrium and the chloride ions from the hydrochloric acid bonds irreversibly to the gold creating AuCl4. Probably as a precipitate.

Couple of Nobel award winning scientists his their medals from the Germans in WW2 doing it, just kept 'em in a jar and recovered it after the war.

Never seen it done, but its interesting chemistry.