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Gold Jewelery: Tips To Decode Their Purity
Several materials are used to design ornaments. Initially, copper ornaments were used in ancient civilizations. Then bronze and brass jewelry became popular. With the discovery of gold and silver, designing and wearing jewelry became an expensive affair. Yet the charm for ornamentation continued to grow. In addition to gold and silver, pearls, platinum, and diamonds are also popular materials used in jewelry design. That said, gold continues to remain the sought after material for ornaments. Fascination for gold jewelry has only grown over the centuries.
However, gold is a very costly metal. As such, people with limited income, typically belonging to the so-called "middle class" can not bear to buy jewelry made of pure gold. As such, some less costly material such as copper or silver is mixed with gold to reduce the cost of jewelry. This does not negatively impact the visual appeal of gold jewelry.
The actual gold content in an alloy which is a combination of gold and a less expensive metal is measured in carats. In jewelry stores, you will notice on each golden object a numeral and the little "K" which is the symbol for "carat". Solid gold is indicated by the number 24, while 18 tells you that the jewel consists of an alloy which is made of 3/4 gold and 1/4 of something else not as costly.
It's hard to make ornaments out of pure gold, because gold is easily shaped but rather weak. Since it has low tensile strength, gold chips easily, and pure gold jewelry is susceptible to lots of nicks and cuts. On the market for buyers today, only biscuits or coins are available in pure 24 carat gold. There is, however, a wide selection of jewelry made from gold alloys.
If you are somebody who does not have a fortune to splurge on gold jewelry, do not be disheartened. There are several ways you can buy jewelry that looks equally good, if not better, than 22 carat jewelry. One way is buying semi precious jewelry that marries semi precious stones such as ruby, sapphire, and emerald with 14k jewelry.
Another possible alternative is to purchase silver jeweler that has gold coating on it. Only a jeweler can claim to successfully distinguish gold plated silver jeweler from pure gold jewelry at all times. Yes, they look so similar to pure gold jewelry.
Despite centuries of competition from cheaper ornaments, gold jewelery remains the most coveted fashion accessory. Since pure gold is easily chipped, solid gold is usually mixed with other materials to obtain a tough alloy during jewelry making. The purity of gold in an alloy is measured in carats (K). The benchmark solid gold is 24k, so a 12k piece of jewelry would indicate an ornament containing only 50 percent gold. Slightly better than that, the affordable 14k jewelry is often mixed with sapphire, ruby and emerald stones to be sold as semi precious jewelry. Also popular is gold plated silver jewelry which appears to be made of solid gold.
Published June 4th, 2008
Filed in Women