We focus on the electrochemical methods to determine the internal surface area and the effective diffusion coefficient inside the nanoporous gold. These methods are applicable without removal of the sample from the electrochemical cell. The results will be correlated to selected measurements using scanning electron microscopy. Furthermore, we investigate how the addition of specifically adsorbing anions and the formation of monolayers of foreign metals by under-potential deposition will change the kinetics of the coarsening process.