Revisiting and Identifying Gold Jewelry

Desire for gold and gold jewelry among men and specially women is global and evergreen. In some parts of the world like South Asia gold jewelry in dowry seems like a religious practice. People wear gold on different occasions for pride, charm and enhancing personality; be it a locket, chain, bangle, earrings, watch or ring, it gives the finishing touch to the outfit. Jewelry can be a perfect gift on any occasion and if it is made of gold, it will make the recipient feel extra special. Buying gold or gold made items like jewelry is secure investment as it is one of the most precious metals in the world and its value is constantly increasing with time. The 22k gold Indian jewelry is very famous, these days.

Gold jewelry comes with different levels of purity and for many people it is not easy to differentiate between them. Pure gold is soft and is not suitable for many jewellery articles. To make it suitable it is mixed with other metals like silver, zinc, copper and palladium with a process called "alloying". Normally pure gold is used in investment and exchange.

Karat is used to measure purity of gold alloys. The purest form of gold is 24k gold with metallic yellow color and any material below 10k is not considered as gold. In jewelry articles 24k is 99.9% gold, 18k is 75% gold, 12k is 50% gold and so forth. Different parts of the world prefer different karat-age in their jewelry. In USA 14k is popular, UK market sells 9ct and 18ct more commonly (in UK karat is spelled as carat) and in India 22k is preferred.

Some jewelry items come with pure gold and others come with only gold plating. Gold platted and gold filled jewelry looks exactly the same. One way to judge the purity of gold is to feel its weight while holding it in hand but this can be tricky and most people cannot differentiate. Secondly, with time and use the gold platted jewelry loses its shine. Gold filled jewelry is of higher value than the gold platted one. As anything below 10k is not gold, some jewelry items are made to look like 14k gold which is 58% gold and hence the buyer can be fooled.

Pure gold is of yellow color, with exception to 22k and 24k, gold can be made into variety of colors after processing the gold with "alloying" in which different metals with different proportions are mixed with gold. One of the most famous non-yellow gold is white gold.

White gold jewelry became famous in the first quarter of 20th century and is very trendy globally. White gold is made by mixing metals like silver and palladium with gold in the alloying process. The reflective surface in white gold comes with rhodium plating which tends to fade away with time and wear. This is normal and the jewelry should get re-rhodium periodically.

Hallmarking of jewelry is a consumer protection law and whenever gold or silver or platinum jewelry is bought it should be carefully inspected if it has a hallmark. Hallmark on an article shows if it has been checked by an independent body and guarantees the purity and karat of the article. When someone wishes to sell it back into the market the gold buyer can easily identify and price it.

Jewelry made of gold is expensive and fragile which needs timely care, attention and cleaning. Water is not the best friend of jewelry; it should be taken off while taking shower and especially while swimming as water in pools contains chlorine, which causes erosion on gold. Household cleaning items have chemicals, which can make the jewelry scratchy and rough.