Precious Metals

Gold

Gold is a yellow coloured precious metal. Gold is a soft metal and is, for the vast majority of jewellery, alloyed with other metals. Pure gold is yellow and 24ct gold is too soft for most jewellery applications.

Rose Gold, Red Gold or Pink Gold

Rose Gold, also sold as red gold or pink gold is a pinkish or reddish coloured gold. The reddish tinge is due to the copper content in the alloy.

White Gold

White Gold is gold alloyed with silver coloured metals such as nickel or palladium. Sometimes white gold is plated with rhodium, which gives it a shine, as the alloy can be a dullish yellow/grey. This plating may wear in time depending on the level of wear.

Carat (or Karat)

Carat = 200 milligrams and is used to measure the weight of gold, precious and semi-precious gemstones and pearls. The abbreviation is ct. US spelling is karat and the abbreviation used is kt.

Carat measurements indicate the content or fineness of gold in the metal alloy.

9ct Gold – 37.5% pure gold (375)

14ct Gold – 58.5% pure gold (585)

18ct Gold – 75% pure gold (750)

22ct Gold – 91.6% pure gold (916)

Other recognised finenesses of gold in the U.K. are 99% (990) and 99.9% (999)

10ct is not a recognised value in U.K. hallmarks.

Silver

Silver is a grey coloured precious metal. Like gold, silver is a soft metal and is often alloyed with other metals.

Sterling Silver - minimum silver content of 92.5% (925)

Britannia Silver – minimum silver content of 95.8% (958)

Fine Silver - minimum silver content of 99.9% Silver (999)

Other recognised finenesses of silver in the U.K. are 80% (800)

Karen Hill Silver

Karen Hill Silver is made by the Karen Hill Tribe in Thailand and is sometimes confused with Bali and Tibetan silver. Karen Hill silver has a high silver content, the fineness ranging from 95% to 99%. This very high fineness of silver is soft so extra care is needed.

Tibetan Silver & Bali Silver

Some items described as Bali Silver and Tibetan Silver have very little to no silver content at all; some may even contain lead, nickel and arsenic. Some factories have flooded the market with beads described as Tibetan and Bali silver, this is a pity as some items are genuine. If it looks cheap and/or is cheap ... it's a case of buyer beware!

Vermeil

Vermeil is Sterling Silver plated with Gold, this is usually a thicker plating than normal gold plating.

Plated Metals

Vermeil

Vermeil is Sterling Silver plated with Gold, this is a thicker plating than normal gold plate.

Gold, Silver and Rhodium Plate

Items that are plated with silver, rhodium or gold are of another metal, in jewellery often copper or brass, that has been (usually) electroplated with real silver or gold.

Rolled Gold

Rolled Gold is a thin layer of gold laminated to a base metal, it’s usually a thicker layer of gold than gold plating.

Gold Filled

Gold Filled again is a thin layer of gold over a base metal. The amount of gold must be at least 5% gold by weight to be called gold filled and usually has the highest content of gold of all the base metal plated items.