Gold

Gold... it hardly needs an introduction. For as long as it's been mined it's been considered a precious ore, and for nearly as long artisans have been making beautiful jewellery out of it. Now this gold in it's pure form is very soft, and not very durable. Due to this certain alloys are mixed with Gold to increase both it's durability and hardness. Some examples of the materials which might be mixed with the gold would be; copper, silver, zinc or nickel. It's this combining of Pure gold and Alloys where we get our Karat Value of gold.

24 Karat - 24 parts gold to 0 parts alloy

22 Karat - 22 parts gold to 2 parts alloy

18 Karat - 18 parts gold to 6 parts alloy

14 Karat - 14 parts gold to 10 parts alloy

10 Karat - 10 parts gold to 14 parts alloy

% Value

99.9%

91.7%

75.0%

58.5%

41.7%

expressed as decimals.

24 Karat - .999

22 Karat - .917

18 Karat - .750

14 Karat - .585

10 Karat - .415

You may have noticed on the inside of most gold rings there are a few stampings. Rings made in North America are stamped #K (ex: 14k) traditionally. What's considered "Europe Fineness Stamping" is what you may find on imported jewellery. This stamping is a 3 digit stamp (ex: 585). This expresses the Karat value of the gold in a decimal form, only without the decimal. This stamp and a few others you may see are called Hallmarks. This is explained below.

Hallmark: A mark or sets of marks used in England since 1300 to indicate the maker and the fineness of gold and silver articles. The Worship Co. of goldsmiths, London, and other guilds are empowered to test and stamp gold and silver wares with four or more marks, including a fineness mark, a town mark, a date letter (changed each year) and a makers mark. In Canada you will normally only find the makers mark (manufacturer stamp) and the fineness mark (karat of gold).

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Gold

% Value

expressed as decimals.

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