Gold Info

Since the beginning of time gold has been one of the favorite metals for jewelers. Most of the gold produced today is used for jewelry manufacture.

Its beauty and permanence inspired craftsman to create unique objects of desire, made gold a symbol of love and heritage. It's been treasured throughout the history by civilizations, reserving gold for most important objects associating with power, wealth and happiness.

Gold, atomic symbol Au on the periodic table of elements, is a yellow metal. Gold has very desirable combinations of physical and mechanical properties, it has superior electrical conductivity and resistance to corrosion. Gold is extremely heavy metal. One cubic foot of gold weights half of a tone. Gold is rare. Only one ounce of metal can be produced from several tonnes of ore. Pure gold is very soft and rarely used in jewelry. Additions of other metals make it exceptionally strong. Gold is not effected by heat, air and moisture, it is also resistant to tarnish. All these properties make gold a valuable commodity.

Purity of gold is defined by its percentage. 100% pure gold is defined as 24 karat gold. As mentioned earlier, pure gold is too soft for most jewelry, so it's mixed with other metals such as cooper, silver, nickel and zinc for its durability. Purity is indicated by karatage and noted by a number followed by "k". 14k gold contains approximately 58.3% of gold. Everything else is addition of some other metals.

Yellow Gold - the gold's natural color and is the most common gold used for jewelry. It is usually alloyed with cooper and silver. The color depends on the content of gold and other metals. A more pure gold has a brighter yellow color.

White Gold. It differs from yellow gold by addition of alloys. Usually they are palladium or nickel, zinc and cooper. Recently it became very popular opposing to traditional yellow gold. White gold has the same properties as yellow gold. Sometimes it is plated with rhodium, an even whiter metal, to enhance its appearance.

Rose gold is made by alloying gold with cooper, which gives it a beautiful pink color.

This is just a brief introduction to gold. For more information please visit http://www.gold.org/ For you, as a consumer, the most important thing is to understand how this terms influence the price.

Pricing

The price of gold jewelry depends on the jewelry design, purity of gold or karat weight and amount of the material needed for this particular item. The price for fine gold currently fluctuates around $562 per ounce. Please visit our page for prices for Gold. It also includes prices for Platinum, Silver, Rhodium.

Care

If treated carefully the gold jewelry will last you forever. Always keep away your jewelry from chemicals such as chlorine and various cleaning fluids. They are the worst enemies for gold. Use a solution of warm water and detergent-free soap to clean your gold jewelry. Store gold items separately to prevent from scratching.

24 karat = 100% gold
Too soft for jewelry

22 karat = 91.7% gold
Very soft — not recommended for jewelry

18 karat = 75.0% gold
Recommended for fine jewelry

14 karat = 58.3% gold
Recommended for jewelry

12 karat = 50.0% gold
Not acceptable for jewelry

10 karat = 41.7% gold
The legal karat limit considered as real gold in the United States