Learn About Gold

Gold is a precious metal that has been used in jewellery making since the beginning of recorded history. Aproximately 50% of gold mined today goes into making jewellery.

Pure Gold (24k) is a soft, malliable and relatively heavy metal with a distincive gold colour. Because of its softness it is particularly easy to craft into nearly any shape, however this softness also means that pure 24 k gold is not suitable for many jewellery applications. For this reason it is usually mixed with other metals to improve its resilience to damage.

White Gold and Rose Gold

Most commercial white gold alloys are a mixture of gold, nickel, silver zinc with copper sometimes added to improve malleability. This additional copper takes the alloy colour to a slightly yellow/brown tint. To overcome this, white gold jewellery is usually rhodium plated. Rhodium is tarnish resistant and gives a good white colour.

Rose gold is achieved by making an allow with copper. Copper is the only other metal to have a colour (other metals are white or grey).

White gold was originally intended to be an alternative to platinum.

Eternity Rhodium Plating Guarantee

Rhodium is the plating that makes white gold white. At Eternity Jewellery all our white gold products carry a 3 year rhodium plating guarantee.

As with any plating, rhodium plated jewellery should not be subjected to any harsh treatment. It is possible to have jewellery re-plated if the rhodium layer has been eroded over time. It is also important to have it professionally serviced.

Karat (k) and Carat (ct)

Both Karat and Carat are the same measurements. They are just different spellings traditionally used in different parts of the world.

• 24ct or 1000 (parts per 1000) or PURE gold
• 22ct or 916 (parts per 1000) or 91.6% gold (mainly Asia)
• 18ct or 750 (parts per 1000) or 75% gold
• 15ct or 625 (parts per 1000) or 62.5 % gold ( Discontinued c1935)
• 14ct or 585 (parts per 1000) or 58.5% gold (Asian for overseas market)
• 12ct or 500 (parts per 1000) or is 50% gold (usually old watch cases)
• 10ct or 416 (parts per 1000) or is 41.6% gold (USA)
• 9ct or 375 (parts per 1000) or is 37.5% gold (mainly Commonwealth)
• 8ct or 333 (parts per 1000) or is 33.3% gold (usually east European)