27/05/2015 What is Rose Gold/Red Gold, White Gold, Gold Filled, 10k 14k 24k Gold?

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What is Gold?
Frequently Asked Questions About Gold Jewelry

What is gold? What are the acceptable stamps for gold?

What is rose gold, red gold, and pink gold? What is vermeilles?
What is white gold? What does gold-plated mean?
What is a karat of gold? What does gold-filled mean?
What is 24K gold? What is 24K gold electroplated over brass?
What is 22K gold? What is an alloy?
What is 18K gold? Is it karat or carat?
What is 14K gold? How to care for gold-plated items?
What is 12K gold? What is the current gold price?
What is 10K gold? Selling gold jewelry – getting a fair price for gold.
What is rhodium? Pictures of rose gold/red gold/pink gold jewelry.

What is gold?
Pure gold is a dense metal that is shiny with a yellowish color and is very soft and malleable. Gold is an element
known as Au and was one of the first known metals. For use in jewelry, it must be combined (alloyed) with another
metal to strengthen it.

What is rose gold, red gold, and pink gold?
Rose Gold vs. Yellow Gold

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Rose gold and yellow gold rings

Hebrew Engraved Wedding Rings sold at Jewish Gift Place

Rose gold, red gold, and pink gold are made from a gold and copper alloy. Since copper has a bold pinkish-orange
color, adding this alloy to gold gives the gold a beautiful pinkish gold color. 18K rose gold, 18K red gold, and 18K
pink gold contain 75% gold. 14K rose gold, 14K red gold, and 14K pink gold contain 58% gold. The remaining
percentage is made up of copper or copper and silver. The varying percentage of copper used determines the color
of the gold. The more copper that is used, the stronger the rose color. Pink gold uses the least amount of copper,
followed by rose gold, and red gold has the highest copper content.

There is no such thing as pure rose gold, since rose gold is an alloy of gold and copper. Below are examples of the
common alloys for 18K rose gold, 18K red gold, and 18K pink gold.

18K Red Gold 18K Rose Gold 18K Pink Gold

75% gold 75% gold 75% gold

25% copper 22.5% copper 20% copper

2.75% silver 5% silver

What is white gold?
White gold is an alloy of yellow gold and at least one white metal, usually nickel or palladium. 18K white gold is 75%
gold, and 14K white gold is 58.3% gold, so jewelry made from these metals have a slight yellow color. To enhance
the whiteness, almost all white gold is plated with rhodium – a shiny, white metal which is extremely hard.
Depending on the amount of wear to a piece of jewelry, over time the rhodium plating may wear off, revealing the
original metal color. Jewelry can be re-plated with rhodium to restore the whiteness, if needed. Below are sample
alloy compositions of white gold:

18K white gold 14K white gold

75% gold 59% gold

10% palladium 25.5% copper
10% nickel 12.3% nickel
5% zinc 3.2% zinc

What is a karat of gold?
Pure gold is 24 karats so 1 karat of gold is 1/24 gold = 4.16% gold.

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What is 24K gold?
24K gold is 100% gold and is too soft for jewelry. It must be alloyed, or combined, with other metals to strengthen
it.

What is 22K gold?
22K gold is 91.7% gold, 5% silver, 2% copper, and 1.3% zinc. It is very soft and not recommended for jewelry.

What is 18K gold?
18K gold is 75.0% gold and is recommended for fine jewelry.

What is 14K gold?
14K gold is 58.3% gold and is recommended for jewelry. 14K gold is the most popular form of gold because it wears
well, is resistant to scratches, and is more durable than the higher karat values.

What is 12K gold?
12K gold is 50.0% gold and is not acceptable for jewelry, although it can still be legally sold as gold.

What is 10K gold?
10K gold is 41.7% gold. It is the legal karat limit considered as real gold in the United States.

What is rhodium?
Rhodium is an element, Rh, that is silvery-white and hard. It is one of the rarest and most valuable precious metals. It
is resistant to corrosion and does not oxidize. For this reason, white gold is often plated with a thin layer of rhodium
to give it a shiny silvery-white color. Sterling silver can be plated with rhodium for tarnish resistance. Because the
layer of rhodium applied to white gold and silver is so thin, it may need to be re-applied to restore the shiny silver
color.

Rhodium, which is one of rarest elements in the Earth’s crust, is found in platinum ores in South Africa and North
America. Rhodium is rarely used in its pure form in jewelry because it has a high melting point and poor malleability,
and because it is so expensive – about 8 times the price of gold.

What are the acceptable stamps for gold?
All gold is required to be stamped to indicate the karat value of the piece. It is acceptable for the karat to be
indicated by a capital K or ct. Below are examples of acceptable stamps for gold:

14K or 14ct
18K or 18ct

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What is vermeil?
Vermeil is .925 sterling silver layered with a thin coating of gold. While standard plating is about 2 millionths of an
inch of gold, a vermeil coating is 50 times that thickness, or 100 millionths of an inch over sterling silver. Vermeil is
gold jewelry with the exact same shine and richness of real 14 karat gold that won’t wear down easily. To care for
your gold vermeil jewelry, simply polish with a cloth, and never machine polish or use any chemicals such as silver or
gold cleaner.

What does gold­plated mean?
During the process of gold plating, a thin layer of gold is applied to a less expensive piece of metal, typically copper
or silver. Industry standards dictate that .15 to .25 mils of gold be applied during the plating process. Gold plating
tends to wear down and chip off of its base metal and is not considered as durable as items that are pure gold or
gold-filled.

What does gold­filled mean?
Gold-filled items are those which have had a layer of 10k (or higher) gold bonded mechanically to a base metal. The
layer of gold must make up a minimum of 1/20th of the total weight of the piece. Such items are marked as being
“gold-filled,” along with the karat fineness of the gold used for filling, such as 10k, 14K, etc.

What is 24K gold electroplated over brass?
This is a brass item, such as a watch, a clock, or a piece of jewelry, which has had a layer of 24k gold mechanically
plated over its surface. The user receives a product that looks as if it is gold, but at a much lower cost, because the
majority of the metal is brass. The finish on the product may not last as long as a solid gold item, but the decrease in
cost makes this process attractive to many people.

What is an alloy?
An alloy is a metal made by combining two or more metals to give it greater strength. Pure gold, like 24K gold, is too
soft to be used in jewelry, so it must be combined with another metal to give it strength. The most common metals
alloyed with gold are silver, copper, and zinc to strengthen the gold. Copper turns the alloy pink and creates rose
gold. Silver or palladium added to gold creates white gold. The percent of gold used in the alloy determines the karat
value.

Is it karat or carat?
A karat designates how much pure gold is in a piece of jewelry. The higher the karat number, the higher percentage
of gold is in the jewelry. Gold is alloyed, or combined, with other metals to make is stronger for use in jewelry. The
highest karat value is 24, so 24K is 100% pure gold.

A carat is a weight of measurement used for diamonds.

How to care for gold­plated items?
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Opting for a gold-plated item over solid or gold-filled item does not mean that it is destined to wear down
immediately. With proper care, gold-plating can last a long time and can be a cost-effective alternative to solid or
gold-filled products. It is important to wash gold-plated items with nothing stronger than warm soapy water.
Chemicals in cleaning products and jewelry cleansers can break down gold plating. Do not expose gold-plated items
to lotion, cosmetics, perfume, or prolonged moisture, and do not buff, as these contribute to the breakdown of the
plating and tarnishing of the item.

What is the current price of gold?
The price of gold changes every day. To learn the current price of gold, visit CNN Money.

Selling gold jewelry – getting a fair price for gold.
The price that you can get for your gold varies from one gold buyer to another. The weight of the gold and the
number of karats in the gold determines its value. You can buy a jewelry scale to check the weight of the gold that
you are selling. The price of gold varies from day to day. You can check the current price of gold at CNN Money. You
can expect to be offered 60% to 80% of the value of the gold.

Keep in mind that jewelers sell jewelry at the retail price and not at a wholesale price that they buy the jewelry for to
make a profit. Craftsmanship of a piece increases the price of a piece of jewelry, but when selling it, craftsmanship
has no value at all, since the gold is melted down, so a beautiful handmade ring that you bought for $500 might
only sell for $60.

Pictures of rose gold/red gold/pink gold jewelry
Jewelry Information Place
Rose Gold, Red Gold, Pink Gold

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