Did you know that 22 karat gold is more expensive than 9 karat gold? “But why?” you may ask. We’ve broken it down below to help you with a better understanding of gold.

Why do we use the term karat (or carat) when referring to gold? A karat (or carat) of gold is a measurement of how pure it is – the number of carats in a piece of gold shows you the percentage of pure gold in the piece.

Twenty-four karat gold is pure gold, (which you will only ever see in bullion bars). Gold is an extremely soft metal which loses particles if used or handled a lot, so other metals have to be added to strengthen it before it can be made into jewelry or coins.

Twenty-two karat gold is 91.6% pure. Most high quality gold jewelry is made of 22 karat gold. It tends to look a shiny yellow – how bright the yellow is depends on whether the remainder of the ‘gold’ is made from silver or copper. Gold jewellery alloyed with copper is usually has a slightly redder tint. Sometimes zinc is added to the copper to neutralise the rose colour and make it more yellow. The best quality 22 karat gold is alloyed with silver (and this is the most expensive version). Because this is the softest form of retail gold jewellery, you need to care for it so that it doesn’t wear thin from over use.

Eighteen karat gold is 75% pure. This is the most popular karat for gold jewellery, as it’s strength copes well with holding gemstones such as diamonds and emeralds in place, without the prongs weakening and the gems falling out.

Fourteen karat gold is 58.3% pure – that is 14/24 parts of it are pure gold, and the remaining 41.6% are another metal.

Nine karat gold is 37.5% Au – that is 9/24 parts of it are pure gold and the remaining 62.5% is another metal. Because of the low percentage of gold in it, this is the cheapest type of gold jewellery. If the other metal in the alloy is copper, it will look a dull bronze color. If the other metal in the alloy is silver or nickel it will look white, hence “white gold”. European white gold is always 9 karat made with silver because they restrict the use of nickel in jewelry as it causes skin problems.

Because gold is more expensive than copper and silver, the higher the percentage of pure gold a piece of jewelry has, the more expensive it is – 22 carat gold jewelry being the most expensive.

Gold does not tarnish and lasts forever, but the other metals in the alloy will tarnish. 22 carat gold tends to retain its shiny yellow look, especially if it is alloyed with silver. However 9 carat gold is vulnerable to tarnishing badly especially if alloyed with copper, and will sometimes turn green or black. The other metals in 9ct jewellery may also react with the wearers skin (especially if nickel is present), sometimes producing dermatitis.

All good quality gold jewellery is hallmarked to tell you exactly what the karat is. 22ct gold is sometimes hallmarked with “916”, which denotes it is 91.6% pure. Sometimes the hallmark will just say “22” to denote the carat. Similar hallmarks are found on 18ct and 9ct gold.

As our name says, we love gold but we love helping our valued clients understand as much as possible about the precious alloy.

Get in touch to find out how much your gold jewellery is worth.

Tel: 086 722 7168

Email: info@thegoldguys.co.za

Thanks to ‘Stuff I Like’ site for some of the material