Gold jewellery can come in several different levels of quality and can vary from country to country. The purest form of Gold is known as 24 “Karat” (24kt). Incidentally the word “Karat” derives from the word “Carob” which is a type of bean and goes back to ancient times when Carob beans were used for weighing precious metals in the ancient bazaars and markets.As I said 24kt Gold is the purest coming in at 99.99% pure Gold. Unfortunately 24kt Gold is very soft and is not very good for making jewellery as it tends to dent and scratch and wear very easily. In order to make Gold more hard wearing Jewellers tend to alloy it with other metals mostly Silver to make it more durable.
The most popular form of alloyed Gold is 18kt. 18-karat gold is 18/24ths, or three-quarters pure gold, and jewelry of this fineness is marked 18k or 750, the European designation meaning 75% gold. 18kt Gold is the most popular type bought in mainland Europe.
Across the pond in the USA however 14kt Gold is the most popular. 14-karat gold, or 583 parts pure gold, is the most common degree of fineness. Nothing less than 10 karats can legally be marked or sold as gold jewelry in the U.S.
Here in dear old Blighty 9kt is the most popular form of Gold used in Jewellery but a considerable amount of 18kt Gold is sold as jewellery for special occasions such as engagement rings or wedding rings 9kt Gold is 37.5% pure gold or 375 .
It’s worth mentioning a quick way to check out the quality of a piece of jewellery you might have is to look at the hall mark or quality mark (depending on where you bought it) one of the marks that may be stamped on your piece of jewellery is a number and would be 999 for 24kt, 750 for 18kt 583 for 14kt and 375 for 9kt.
Finally and as a warning well worth taking note of, when you are on holiday i.e. out of the EU or not in the USA and you see a piece of jewellery or you’re offered a piece of jewellery that seems the bargain of a life time and a deal that is too good to miss check and see if the piece has a kt mark before you even consider it further, if it hasn’t got one then obviously don’t buy it as you don’t know what it is it may not even be Gold secondly remember it seems to good to be true then it probably is just that so keep your money for something nice (buy from me!!)
yours
the boss