There is always a moment when we ask ourselves the question: What are the differences between white gold and gray gold? Where one wonders where the pink gold comes from, since a priori gold is yellow when it comes out of the mines. There is also the question of price, in what color is gold the most expensive? Jeweler and jewelry have long used the colors of gold to create the most beautiful jewels. Today, I take you on the road of gold, to understand how nature proposes it to us and how man has transformed it.
The origins of gold
Initially, the gold comes from nuclear fusion reactions in the stars. Gold is a siderophile element (it likes to associate with iron in its natural state). It is therefore present in large quantities in the nucleus of the Earth. Moreover, its presence on the Earth’s crust is probably due mainly to the many impacts of meteorites or comets about 4 billion years ago. If we use gold for many uses. 70% of the production is used to make jewelry. The China is the largest producer worldwide. The rarity of this metal and its excellent resistance to corrosion or oxidation make it a noble metal. For a long time now, men have been hunting for gold nuggets in mines or riverbeds. Looking for gold is an ancestral activity.
Alloys and color of gold.
When you ask a jeweler what are the distinctions in terms of gold color, why he rather offers this beautiful diamond mounted on a frame in white gold rather than yellow gold, he answers: “It is a alloy story “.
How? ‘Or’ What? The gold that we market is not pure?
We mix it before selling it to us?
Yes, it is exactly that, and fortunately indeed, because otherwise your pretty ring or your beautiful bracelet would be quickly reduced to the state of a deformed object.
Indeed, gold is an extremely malleable metal (we can say soft enough), and without mixing with other metals you jewelry would not be rigid enough to be worn. It is therefore the different complementary metals that we add that will vary its color.
- yellow gold ring
- A beautiful yellow gold ring set with small diamonds
- solitaire white gold
- A superb solitaire on white gold
- rose gold bracelet
- Too cute this rose gold bracelet
- The trash
- Yellow gold, pink or gray.
- 75% gold | 12.5% silver | 12.5% copper: this is yellow gold.
- 75% gold | 5% money | 20% copper: its pink gold.
- 75% gold | 15% silver | 10% copper: its gray gold.
For information, nickel is now banned in gold alloys because of the allergies it causes.
And white gold in all this?
Well, it gets complicated. In fact, white gold is gray gold buy white gold from Midwest Jewellery. But as this gray sometimes has yellow reflections, it is added a film of rhodium to give it a shine more “white” (a process that is better to renew at the jeweler if you wear your jewel every day, because ‘is a simple surface treatment).
But there is whiter than white gold…
It is complicated yet … Because the rhodium treatment is not sustainable, another technique makes it possible to obtain white gold. There is less copper and silver, and palladium is added. This palladium is an integral part of the alloy of metals.
However, over time, white gold made in this way can darken and pull toward brown or yellow. But there, no need to go through a treatment. It will be enough of a simple polishing to restore it to its original color.
Well, in practice, difficult to navigate because for some jewelry, there is palladium, but they are rhodium and more.
Hey, do we also hear about blue gold?
That is true. Blue gold is yellow gold that is mixed with iron oxide to give it a steel color. Some people just add a thin blue and transparent lacquer. In other cases, it is covered with chemically colored nickel (beware of allergies)
And the black gold?
Rhôô, the black gold, is what is used to make the fuel to fuel your cars to buy jewelry, we forget for the moment.
But tell Lily and the carat stories in all this?
Good question, there are some who follow…
So, the carat is a measure of the amount of gold in relation to the total amount of metal.
To put it simply, the reasoning is done on the report 1 for 24. Either 1/24 th.
We therefore speak of 24 carat gold when it is pure (at least 99.99%)
18-carat gold (the best known in France) is composed of a minimum of 75% gold and 25% of complementary alloys at most. We also use a lot of 14 carat gold (58% gold) to make very strong clasps or pieces of jewelry. 14ct gold jewelry can also be found in some countries such as Greece or the USA. So be careful if you make jewelry purchases, or if you want to sell , this gold does not have the same value. But he was talking about 9-carat gold the other day on TV?
Not only are there some who follow, but who are interested…
With 9 carats, you will understand, there is more gold in your jewel (about 33%). 9 carat gold is the latest trend among some of the low cost jewelry to sell at low prices.
But what difference for us? And well the jewels are less solid, difficult to modify (for a discount to size a ring for example). It is therefore important to ask clearly when you buy how much karat gold is the jewel you buy. More about 9 carat gold.
And the prices in all this?
Overall, if you ever sell your jewelry by weight, it does not matter if it’s yellow, gray, white or pink gold. It is a price according to the carats which will be proposed to you, and for a jewel in gold 18 carats (75% of gold), there will be no difference of tariff.
In jewelry, white gold is sometimes more expensive for marketing reasons. Because even if the palladium that composes it is 10 times rarer than gold, it is less demand, so cheaper ( in short, the Palladium is cheaper but for marketing reasons you will pay your jewel more expensive … )
So what do we choose? Yellow gold, white, pink, in how many carats?
Difficult for me to advise you, the tastes and colors as they say…
Now, we consider that a stone like the diamond will be better developed and will give more brightness on a white mount. But hey, it’s still a story of taste.
However, for jewelry low in gold (less than 18 carats), treat yourself, but do you say they will not be strong enough if one day you want to recycle them to make a golden tooth 🙂
