Precious Metals
Precious Metals
Metals are indispensable when it comes to adornments. Through out the recorded history of man, different kinds of metals were in use for jewellery making.
Precious metals like Gold, Silver and Platinum are extensively used for jewellery because of the lustre and properties like malleability and ductility. When the pliable properties makes them easy to work with, the distinct colours and lustre makes them exquisite. Expensive metals are exclusive and rare compared to their counterparts which will add the inherent value in its scarcity.
Gold
Gold Karat
In its purest form, gold has a unique yellow colour and is referred as 24 karat gold on the scale of purity. Gold is too soft to be used in its purest form for jewellery, hence it is often mixed with zinc or copper to add strength and reduce unintended deformations.
GOLD PURITY BY KARAT COUNT
| Karat Measure | Gold Purity |
|---|---|
| 24 Karat | 100% pure gold |
| 22 Karat | 91.7% gold + 8.3% Other metal(s) |
| 18 Karat | 75% gold + 25% Other metal(s) |
| 14 Karat | 58% gold + 42% Other metal(s) |
| 10 Karat | 42% gold + 58% Other metal(s) |
Gold Colours
Gold when alloyed with the different metals combinations can be transformed into different colours. Yellow gold, white gold, rose gold and green gold are the popular gold colours in the jewellery industry. Yellow gold was the most preferred gold colour but white gold is gaining its popularity for the last 30 years.
- Yellow gold – Alloy of gold with silver, copper, and zinc
- White gold – Alloy of old and platinum (or palladium) or alloy of gold, palladium, nickel and zinc
- Rose gold – Alloy of gold, copper, and silver.
- Green gold – Alloy of gold, silver, and sometimes copper.
Silver
Silver is the second most popular metal in jewellery after the gold. Silver is lustrous, malleable, ductile and has low chemical reactivity, which are the basic properties that makes it excellent for jewellery making. Like gold, silver is also a soft metal and silver alloys are rather preferred for jewellery making than pure silver. The different types of silver are fine silver, sterling silver, Britannia silver, nickel silver and silver plate. Fine silver is the most purest form of silver with .999 level of purity. Sterling silver is the most common in jewellery which contains 92.5 % pure silver and 7.5 % copper. Since the sterling silver contains 92.5% pure silver, it is often stamped as .925. Britannia silver contains 95.84% silver, which is more expensive than sterling silver. Silver ornaments comes in two colour-ways, bright white and greyish white.
