A Comprehensive Guide to Gold Jewelry
When shopping for fine jewelry, there's a lot of information to digest. If gold is your choice of metal, do you want white, pink, yellow, green? What does "karat" mean? What's the difference between 14k or 24k? What's gold fill or gold plated?
Read below for a comprehensive guide to answer all your gold questions and make the choice that is right for your budget and lifestyle.
What does "karat" mean?
Karat is defined as "a measure of the purity of gold, pure gold being 24 karats".
Since 24k gold is the purest form of gold, anything less than 24k is considered an "alloy". An alloy is a main metal (in this case, gold), mixed with other metallic elements to create a new substance. Karat is used to grade the purity of gold. The lower the karat, the less pure gold is present in the alloy. Depending on what other metals are present in an alloy can change things like durability, affordability and even color. You still with us?
Here's a breakdown - to be considered gold in the US, the content of gold in an alloy has to be at least 37.5% gold, or 9k, with the rest being composed of other metals.
From there, the most common karats are 10k (41.7% gold), 14k (58.3% gold), 18k (75% gold) and 22k (91.7% gold) with 24k at the top with 99.9% pure gold.
How does karat affect color?
The higher percentage of gold present in an alloy, the more intense of a yellow color it will possess.
Switching up what secondary metals are present in an alloy, however, can change the color. Rose gold for example, gets its pink color by the presence of copper in the alloy. White gold can get its color from the inclusion of nickel, silver, zinc or palladium (Lackadazee uses palladium white gold exclusively) in an alloy.
While many people associate white gold with a bright, shining color, white gold in its raw form actually has a yellowish, gray tint. The iconic, bright look of white gold most of us are familiar with is achieved through a process called rhodium plating. It's important to note that rhodium plating takes maintenance, and generally speaking, white gold jewelry with this treatment needs attention every 1-2 years to maintain its color.
Plating vs. Gold-Fill vs. Vermeil
You can buy gold in four common forms; plate, fill, vermeil or solid. These forms are separated by how much gold is being used in the piece. Only gold pieces marked with a karat is genuine, solid gold.
Plating is when a thin layer of gold is imposed onto an inexpensive base metal using a process called electroplating. Eventually this thin layer of gold will wear off, leaving you with whatever metal is underneath. Often gold plated pieces have an inexpensive base metal like brass, copper, nickel, or silver.
Gold-fill is when a thick layer of gold is imposed on an inexpensive base metal core by a machine. Gold-fill is marketed as an affordable alternative to solid gold. One issue with gold-fill is it does not hold the same value as solid gold. Though it may take years or even decades, the top layer of gold will eventually rub off, leaving you with whatever the core metal was in the jewelry. Our recommended alternative to gold plating or gold-fill is vermeil.
Vermeil is the process of electroplating a layer of 10k-24k gold onto sterling silver. After the gold eventually weathers away, you will be left with a beautiful piece of wearable, sterling silver jewelry.
Solid gold is gold thru and thru. It can be melted down, reused, recycled and retains its karat value. You can differentiate solid gold from other types of gold by identifying the markings or stamps that can be found on the piece.
Do you have any other questions on gold?
We hope this article has been informative and takes away the mystery of purchasing gold. We love what we do and encourage you to reach out if you have questions.
Stay gold, ya'll.