Try this what you got to lose
"Gold Plated Or Real? Critical Information You Need To Know When Buying Jewelry!"," Does that mean that the item is gold plated, or is it 10 karat gold? The answer is at the end of this article.
First, a little background.
(Except that in England, they spell it ""carat"".
) Karat weights are based on the idea that pure gold is 24 karat.
So gold is almost always mixed, or alloyed, with other less valuable, but stronger metals to give it more strength.
To indicate the ratio of gold to alloys, the karat system was developed.
9% pure gold (realistically, it cannot be 100%), one karat is 1/24 pure gold.
2% gold! So, you will find that gold used in jewelry is typically alloyed from about 10K, which is 10/24 gold, or 41.
7% gold.
In the United States, an item must have be at least 10K in order to be called ""gold"" jewelry, and the typical markings are 10K, 14K, 18K and 22K.
So, 14K gold is 14/24 = 58.
24K, by the way, has a fineness of 999.
So, now what about items that are not ""solid gold""? That terminology is a little confusing--""solid gold"" could mean ""non-alloyed gold"", that is, a fineness of 999.
For the purposes of our discussion here, we will use the latter meaning, although in the US, a seller cannot use the term ""solid gold"" unless the item is solid 24K gold!
Gold is often applied to a cheaper (and stronger) metal, such as brass or copper, to make a much less expensive piece of jewelry.
Gold plating is not a good thing, however, when it is used on a jewelry item that gets a lot of wear, such as a ring.
and creating tarnish and corrosion.
Gold electroplating must be, by US law, at least 7 mils thick (a ""mil"" is one-millionth of an inch).
Gold may also be applied in a thicker layer than electroplating by means of mechanically bonding the gold to the base metal; the item is then said to be ""gold filled"", marked as ""GF"".
This would mean the item would be marked as ""10KGF"", but if the gold was higher quality, you would see ""18KGF"", for example.
This process would specify the percentage of gold, as well as the quality, in the stamping, such as ""1/40 14K RGP"", which would indicate that 1/40 of the weight of the piece is composed of 14K gold.
This result is termed ""vermeil"", pronounced ""vehr-may"", and requires that the plating be at least 120 mils of 24k gold.
It is, of course, possible to electroplate silver and simply mark it as ""GEP"", which would only require a 7 mil layer of gold! So, read those magazine advertisements carefully when they speak of ""24K gold-plated sterling silver!""
"Gold Plated Or Real? Critical Information You Need To Know When Buying Jewelry!"," Does that mean that the item is gold plated, or is it 10 karat gold? The answer is at the end of this article.
First, a little background.
(Except that in England, they spell it ""carat"".
) Karat weights are based on the idea that pure gold is 24 karat.
So gold is almost always mixed, or alloyed, with other less valuable, but stronger metals to give it more strength.
To indicate the ratio of gold to alloys, the karat system was developed.
9% pure gold (realistically, it cannot be 100%), one karat is 1/24 pure gold.
2% gold! So, you will find that gold used in jewelry is typically alloyed from about 10K, which is 10/24 gold, or 41.
7% gold.
In the United States, an item must have be at least 10K in order to be called ""gold"" jewelry, and the typical markings are 10K, 14K, 18K and 22K.
So, 14K gold is 14/24 = 58.
24K, by the way, has a fineness of 999.
So, now what about items that are not ""solid gold""? That terminology is a little confusing--""solid gold"" could mean ""non-alloyed gold"", that is, a fineness of 999.
For the purposes of our discussion here, we will use the latter meaning, although in the US, a seller cannot use the term ""solid gold"" unless the item is solid 24K gold!
Gold is often applied to a cheaper (and stronger) metal, such as brass or copper, to make a much less expensive piece of jewelry.
Gold plating is not a good thing, however, when it is used on a jewelry item that gets a lot of wear, such as a ring.
and creating tarnish and corrosion.
Gold electroplating must be, by US law, at least 7 mils thick (a ""mil"" is one-millionth of an inch).
Gold may also be applied in a thicker layer than electroplating by means of mechanically bonding the gold to the base metal; the item is then said to be ""gold filled"", marked as ""GF"".
This would mean the item would be marked as ""10KGF"", but if the gold was higher quality, you would see ""18KGF"", for example.
This process would specify the percentage of gold, as well as the quality, in the stamping, such as ""1/40 14K RGP"", which would indicate that 1/40 of the weight of the piece is composed of 14K gold.
This result is termed ""vermeil"", pronounced ""vehr-may"", and requires that the plating be at least 120 mils of 24k gold.
It is, of course, possible to electroplate silver and simply mark it as ""GEP"", which would only require a 7 mil layer of gold! So, read those magazine advertisements carefully when they speak of ""24K gold-plated sterling silver!""
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