What is Gold?

"Give gold if you love each other"

Almost everyone has heard of this saying.

Gold has been used for jewelry for thousands of years. This is partly because this precious metal has a fairly fixed value. There are quite a few different types of gold.

Gold is a beautiful material that radiates beauty. The higher the content, the more luxury and exclusivity the piece of jewelry has. When choosing wedding rings, gold is often chosen, because gold rings stand for love and long life. As the saying goes: "a golden marriage" the beautiful gold wedding rings will last a long time.

Gold alloy

We do not use pure gold in Europe. This is because pure gold is very soft. That is why gold is often alloyed with other metals to make it stronger. In the Netherlands, most jewelry is made of 14-karat gold. When a piece of jewelry is made of 14-karat gold, it means that out of 1000 particles in total in an alloy, 585 particles are pure gold. The remaining 415 particles are attached metal. With an 18-karat gold piece of jewelry, of the 1000 particles, 750 particles are pure gold and 250 particles are attached metal.

What is Karat?

When we talk about karats, we are talking about the purity of a gold alloy. Unlike a diamond, this has nothing to do with the weight of a gold alloy, but with the proportion of pure gold present in an alloy. Below is a list with the most common grades and the amount of gold particles that are in the alloy per grade:

Colors of gold

As we have already described above, 'other' metals are added to strengthen a gold alloy. The exact type of metal added depends on the color gold. Rose gold, for example, gets its color from the addition of copper. The higher the copper content, the stronger the red coloring of the metal will be. With yellow gold, a combination of silver and copper is usually added. There are different colors of gold, such as yellow, red, and white, but nowadays even purple and green gold. At Margriet Jewels we offer yellow gold, red gold, rose gold, and white gold. For a while, rose gold was a lot less popular, but due to the trends of recent years, rose gold has made a comeback. 

Advantages and disadvantages of gold content

Each gold content has its advantages and disadvantages. With pure gold, you naturally get the certainty that there is no added metal in the alloy. You choose pure gold and you get pure gold. As told, pure gold is only very soft. It is so soft that wearing it will cause a lot of damage. The material can dent, scratch, or deform quickly. And of course, we want to prevent that. However, you can deduce from this that the higher the gold content, the softer (and therefore more vulnerable) the material is.

In the Netherlands, most suppliers work with 14-karat gold. The ring is hard enough to last a lifetime with normal use. Jewelry made of 18-karat gold is seen as the more luxurious jewelry. Jewelry made of 9-karat gold is not officially seen as gold jewelry in the Netherlands. That is why jewelry is only approved for the guarantee of 14-karat gold. However, abroad it is more common to produce jewelry from 9-karat gold. Below you can find the different stamps that belong to the different contents in the Netherlands.

Margriet Jewels only uses gold that has been approved by law. Below are the hallmarks that are stamped in our gold jewelry at the Warranty. Of course, the Master's mark of Goldsmith Margriet (Margriet Burger-Schouten) also appears in all jewelry. 

It is possible that an allergic reaction occurs at a lower level. This is because a larger amount of another metal is added. This can be silver, copper, or something completely different. Because part of the alloy consists of something other than gold, it is possible that a reaction takes place between the skin and the jewelry.

In addition, you can see quite a bit of color difference between the different contents. The higher the content, the warmer the color of the gold. For example, a 24-karat yellow gold ring is visibly more yellow than a 14-karat yellow gold ring. With white gold and rose gold jewelry, you will not see a difference between the different contents. White gold jewelry is never rhodium plated at Margriet Jewels. Except in the PLAIN Collection, the necklaces can be rhodium plated. This means that a silver-white layer of rhodium is electrolytically applied to the jewelry. Read more about Rhodinizing here.

Click here for an overview of all our jewelry in gold.