hi, i'm new to this site, mostly to improve my gold leafing skillz... call up Golden Leaf Products, they will send you a sample. I had a big gold leaf job a few months ago and was shopping around and called them because their prices seemed too good to be true. The sales guy shipped me a few leaves for free.
That said, we ordered a box of patent from "The Gold Leaf Company". It looks good to me, but I'm a novice, and it takes some pressure to get it off the backing paper. When we run out (hopefully soon!) I'm going to order a few books from Golden Leaf to see which works better for me.