Fantastic Facts About Gold And Gold Jewelry

Gold has been adorned by men and women for thousands of years. There are some fascinating facts about gold and gold jewelry. As you read this article, you will learn more about gold and gold jewelry, and may just help you when buying gold jewelry.

When buying gold jewelry you will find that you will hear about karats. The word karat comes from the carob tree which the seeds used to be used in the past as a way of weighing gold. Because of the apparent uniformity in weight the carob seed was a great way to weigh gold. However, today it has been found that they are not as uniform as it was believed!

The word Karats as it applies to gold is a way of measuring the pureness of gold jewelry. The pure gold metal is so soft in its pure form and unsuitable for wearing it is often added with other metals to make it stronger. For example 24 karat gold is pure gold and as such is very soft. Gold in this state is easily malleable and would bend and change shape every time you wear it.

Gold has other metals added to make it harder and thus more suitable for wearing as jewelry. These other metals could include copper, nickel, silver and a number of other metals to strengthen the gold, so it can be used for gold jewelry. So, next time you visit a jewelers selling gold jewelry you can know just how much real gold is contained in the jewelry! Therefore 24-carat gold is fine (99.9% Au w/w), 18-carat gold is 75% gold, 12-carat gold is 50% gold, and so forth.

Any gold jewelry with less than 10% pure gold is against the law to be advertised as gold in the United States! Though reputable jewelry sellers will not do anything to damage there reputation, it is possible that other countries may do such a practice. Gold can often be found in Asian countries and Middle Eastern countries at great prices. However, the laws may not provide a framework that makes sure the gold is what it says it is.

Gold jewelry is not always simply that elegant and illustrious gold color; there are different colors that you can find gold in. There is white gold, normal gold, green - yellow, pink or rose gold, red gold and also tricolor gold jewelry! All of this difference in color when buying gold jewelry is down to the added metals to make the gold stronger. For example copper can make the gold turn redder in color.

The temperature that gold manufacturer used to heat and manufacture the gold also makes a difference in the color of gold jewelry. Gold naturally is inert, but with the added metals, the gold jewelry could change color over time, so this is a point to consider when buying gold jewelry.

When buying gold jewelry, you will find that there is a hallmark. This hallmark contains information about the gold jewelry. One of the emblems or marks should contain the karat or pureness of the jewelry, and also the manufacturer's logo. This is critical information to know that you do indeed have purchased gold that is what it says it is.

Gold jewelry is not always advertised with the karat scale. In Europe you can find a millesimal fineness system in which the purity of precious metals is denoted by parts per thousand of pure metal in the alloy.

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