Learning About Gold

In the U.S. the purity of gold is designated by karat. Pure gold is 24K but is not used for making jewelry because of how soft it is. To strengthen the gold some other metals are added such as zinc, silver, copper, and nickel. The color and karat of the gold depends on what is added and how much of that metal is added.

To help you understand this a little better, lets take a look at a ring. On the inside of the ring it is stamped 10K and the color of the ring is pink gold. To achieve the color of the gold, other metals like silver, copper, and zinc were used. To give the ring the pink color, more copper was added. The 10K stamp tells you that 58.33% of the ring is silver, copper, and zinc and the other 41.67% is pure gold. Another thing the 10K stamping tells you is that the ring was made in the United States. This is because the United States is the only country to use 10K. If you had a ring that was stamped with a 14K that would mean the ring was 58.33% pure gold and the other 41.67% all other metals. Another example would be an 18K stamping which would contain 75% pure gold and 25% all other metals.

Fineness is another way that rings can be stamped. In Europe they stamp their jewelry by their fineness. Pure gold would be 1000 fine while 18K gold would be 75% or in otherwords 750 fine. So if you would find a ring that was stamped 750 you would know that it was an 18K piece.
Look at the chart below for the most known karat markings.