Choosing the right metal for your jewel is not easy. It is normal for one to feel a bit lost by the different families of metals, their characteristics, colours or even their different prices!
You may wonder if gold is a good choice for your jewelry ?
Is it a durable metal? Do all Maisons offer the same quality of gold? Is it suitable for everyday use such as my wedding band or my engagement ring ?
These are questions that many people ask themselves, and rightly so, as it is not always easy to find your way around.
With this in mind, we decided to create this guide dedicated to the standard metal in the jewelry world: gold.
After reading it, it will no longer seem as daunting!
The basics
Before explaining all the major characteristics of each gold, let's start by going over a few essential concepts.
—— 1. What is gold?
The first traces of gold appear from around 5000 BC. At that time, the use of gold was relatively limited because of the technical difficulty of working it.
Gold then became a currency, thanks to King Croesus in the 8th century BC, and then spread to the rest of the world through trade. Monetary gold circulated until 1973, when it was demonetised.
A source of interest and sometimes even folly is that gold has been the ultimate symbol of power and the sign of the Divine for thousands of years. From the Egyptians to the kings of the Enlightenment, it has endured through the ages, even becoming the ultimate reward for sporting performance.
a. What does gold look like?
When mined, gold is often found in the form of nuggets: rounded masses that are usually small in size. However, sometimes record nuggets can be found!
The Welcome Stranger is the largest nugget in history, discovered in 1869 in Australia, weighing 72kg! The Hand of Faith weighing 27.2kg, found in 1980 with... a simple metal detector, is also one of the most impressive gold discoveries in history.
The source of many dreams of fortunes and fantasies, gold nuggets the famous gold rushes on several continents from the 1830s onwards, the most famous of which were in the American West.
Did you know
Gold, unlike steel for example, is a metal that cannot be manufactured!
This is one of the main reasons why it was used to make coins, which were then almost impossible to forge.
In addition to nuggets, gold can also be found in the form of powder or flakes. You probably have the image in your mind of a gold digger with a sieve in a river. Well, this is what he was looking for!
b. What makes gold such a special metal?
Gold is an unchangeable metal
Gold has the great characteristic of being resistant to oxidation and corrosion.
What does this mean? Well, it means that very few chemicals can attack it and that it is a metal that does not rust!
It is precisely for these reasons that gold has survived the centuries. Whether it is underwater, underground or in any other condition, gold can be preserved for thousands of years.
For proof of this, one only has to look at the death mask of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun, an object dating back to 1300 BC.
An additional advantage specific to jewelry: gold can be melted down endlessly without losing its quality.
Gold is a metal that is very malleable and ductile
A metal is said to be ductile when it has the ability to bend without breaking, which is ideal for shaping small objects with sometimes technical shapes like for pieces of jewelry.
Did you know that?
Pure gold is so ductile and malleable that a sheet of gold less than one thousandth of a millimetre thick can be made without breaking!
To help you visualise, this corresponds to 0.001 mm... the thickness of a hair.
It is thanks to this particularity that gold can be used to cover objects such as picture frames for example.
Another often overlooked quality: gold has excellent electrical conductivity.
For this reason, it is also widely used in industry or in computers. But at Gemmyo, we prefer to use it to make your jewelry
c. The price of gold
Gold is a precious metal that has a market price.
Whether it is gold bars, gold coins, ounces (31.10 grams) or ingots, the price of gold fluctuates and changes daily. The price is set according to production and demand.
For a precious metal, the price is often correlated to its rarity and gold is a so-called rare rare metal.
To help you understand this, the average grade of deposits is said to be about 1.01 grams per tonne. This means that for 1 tonne of material, usually rock, there is on average the equivalent of a small paperclip of gold!
The second point that justifies its price is the high demand. Today, the demand for gold is much higher than the production and therefore the supply: the economic definition of scarcity.
As with all precious metals, there is a wide range of quality for gold. In order to make things clearer, let's talk about the different grades.
—— 2. What are the different gold grades or titrations?
You may have heard of 9 Karat, 14 Karat, 18 Karat or 24 Karat gold.
But wait, isn't the word Karat used for stones?
Yes it is, but it doesn't mean the same thing:
The carat for a stone corresponds to its weight, its mass. The reference being 1 carat of diamond is equal to 0.20 grams.
The Karat for a metal corresponds to its titration: i.e. the percentage of pure gold within the alloy.
In order to make it clearer, here are the main legal grades in force:
999/1000 or 24 Karat gold is 99.9% pure gold.
916/1000 or 22 Karat gold is 91.6% pure gold.
833/1000 or 20 Karat gold is 83.3% pure gold.
750/1000 or 18 Karat gold is 75% pure gold *.
585/1000 or 14 Karat gold is 58.5% pure gold.
375/1000 or 9 Karat gold is composed of 37.5% pure gold.
*750/1000 or 18 Karat gold is the quality we use at Gemmyo and the quality used by the major jewelry Maisons in the world.
What is a legal tender?
The term legal tender or grade refers to the amount of pure metal present in its alloy.
For example, 750/1000 quality (18 Karats) means that there is 75% pure gold in the alloy; the rest is made up of other metals (usually silver and copper).
A legal tender also corresponds to a quality that is said to be standardised; this means that it is the same everywhere.
To give you a concrete example: the 750/1000 or 18 Karat gold that we use at Gemmyo to make our jewelry is strictly the same as that used by the big names in the Place Vendôme who also use this quality.
If there is 24 Karat gold, a theoretically maximum quality, why is it not used for our jewelry?
24 Karat gold is 99% pure gold and as we have seen above, it is a naturally very malleable metal. The 24 karat grade is therefore less suitable for the manufacture of jewelry that requires a high degree of robustness.
What about 9 or 14 Karat gold? Are they good qualities for jewelry?
9 Karat gold and 14 Karat gold are very common in jewelry but compared to 18 Karat gold, for example, they are less valuable qualities because they contain less pure gold.
At this point you are probably wondering how to recognise these different grades on a piece of jewelry. The most effective method is to look at the hallmark!
The hallmark is an official and obligatory mark affixed by the State (French customs) on a precious metal to confirm its authenticity.
Where to find this mark on a piece of jewelry?
In France, all handcrafted gold jewelry weighing more than 3 grams must be hallmarked. There are several methods for affixing a hallmark to a piece of jewelry. At Gemmyo, they are all hallmarked in the traditional way with a small chisel and a hammer.
You will often find your hallmark opposite your gemstone(s) and on the outside of the setting!
For fine gold jewelry weighing less than 3 grams, the law does not require a hallmark, as affixing one would risk twisting the jewelry.
Finally, contrary to what one might think, the hallmark is not a defect, but rather a guarantee of the quality of the jewelry. It is a sort of label for the jewel.
At Gemmyo, we only use 750/1000 or 18 Karat gold to make our jewelry, which can be recognised by its eagle head hallmark.
—— 3. Why choose 750/1000 (or 18 Karat) gold?
With a composition of 75% pure gold, 18 Karat gold is the best balance between quality and hardness.
18 Karat gold is the quality that combines the maximum purity with the maximum resistance, it is quite simply the most resistant metal used in jewelry.
For this reason, it is used by all the greatest jewelry Maisons: it's the guarantee of an extremely durable jewel!
—— 4. At Gemmyo, gold is recycled
Due to its success, the demand for gold is much higher than the world's production and the conditions of extraction are not always very transparent.
At Gemmyo, we are committed to minimising the environmental impact of our business and are proud to guarantee that all our gold is recycled.
Our suppliers are CoC-labelled by the RJC for "Responsible Jewellery Council" which defines environmental, social and ethical practices and is committed to respecting human rights throughout the supply chain.
The CoC label is a chain of custody traceability.
What does this mean in practice? Our gold is not mined, we only use gold that is already in circulation.
Remember, as we said before, gold has the capacity to be recast almost infinitely without losing its quality!
So, contrary to what you might think, gold is not at all wasteful. In fact there is no waste as all surplus or excess is recovered for reuse.