24k Pure Gold Jewelry

We get asked a lot: what is the difference between white gold and yellow gold? Is there an advantage of having say a 24 karat gold earrings or 24 karat white gold jewelry? And our answer might surprise you. Because if you are looking for 24 karat gold jewelry or rings, you obviously want the very best gold that can be had.

Know this fact about gold: it is a mineral and when it comes out of the ground, it's almost always mixed with a little silver and other trace minerals. When miners find a gold nugget, it is normally 70 to 90 percent gold and the rest almost all silver. Gold is bright yellow from the ground - but the more silver in it, the whiter it is.

They don't find many nuggets. Most gold comes from ore and is hard to see until it is refined. So here's part of your answer: Gold is so soft when it is pure, 24 karats, that it would get bent, scratched and probably lost if formed into jewelry. What they do is add palladium and nickel to it to make white gold and it becomes harder as well.

Normal 18 k gold jewelry and 14 karat gold jewelry are pure gold (24 karats) mixed with copper, silver, and zinc. Rose gold is gold mixed with copper. Metals give gold various hues and hardness.

Pretty often in the industry, jewelers will electroplate their white gold pieces with a thin coat of rhodium, similar to platinum, so the piece is even whiter than normal. With these alloys, gold jewelers can come up with very interesting works. There isn't really an advantage of having white gold over yellow gold. It's a matter of taste and preference.

Buyers in the metals markets have been flocking to gold because the dollar is still weakening with the fluctuations in the housing and credit markets. Gold is seen as a great investment for investors when the markets are volatile elsewhere.

Just last Friday, Gold hit a 16 month high when US payroll data reported a lot lower than investors felt comfortable with. So the dollar went down.

Pure 24 Karat Gold

What is rich reddish gold? What looks great on men and women of any body type or coloring? What is prized the world over as jewelry and for its monetary value? The answer to these questions and many others is 24 karat gold.

What Is 24 Karat Gold?

The short answer is that 24 karat gold is as pure as it gets. In other words, it has not been blended with another metal to make it stronger, less expensive, or to change the color. It is pure gold. The word “karat,” or carat in countries other than the U.S., comes from the origination of the weighing system used for gold.

The earliest measure of gold was done by using the seed of the carob, keration (in Greek), which translates to English as either karat or carat. Today, the karat weight of gold depends solely upon the other alloys, blended metals, found in a particular piece of jewelry. Gold is measured based on a system that is roughly equivalent to 24 ancient carob seeds.

According to this system, then, 1 karat is equivalent to 1/24 pure gold. However, the lowest karat weight that is generally accepted in the U.S. is 9 karats or 9 parts pure gold and 15 parts alloy materials. It follows, then, that 24 karat gold equals 24/24 parts pure gold, or is a piece of jewelry that is pure gold with no alloy materials.

The Benefits And Drawbacks

The benefit to owning 24 karat gold jewelry, aside from the purity of the piece, is the lack of alloy materials. While this may appeal to a collector or purist, it is also something that people that suffer from allergic reactions to nickel may consider. Nickel is a commonly used alloy material in gold jewelry and is, quite often, responsible for allergic reactions to metal.

The drawback to 24 karat gold jewelry is softness. Gold is not a hard metal, which is one of the main reasons that it is usually alloyed with other materials. Therefore, it is important to purchase good thick heavy pieces rather than something thin and less likely to maintain its shape or wear well.

Additionally, it is always vital to make sure your piece of 24 karat gold jewelry is stamped, usually 24K, so that you can be comfortable knowing that you are paying for pure gold and not some variation. 24 karat gold is commonly used in necklaces, rings, bracelets and earring, and once you see the rich color and feel the delicate purity, you will know the reason so many will wear nothing but the purest of gold.