Gold jewelry is more than just a style statement or a mere way of adornment. Gold jewelry is used to flaunt one’s status quo – their aesthetic appeal and their high prices speak for themselves.
In today’s market, there are a lot of varieties of gold commercially available. White gold, rose gold, yellow gold, 24K gold, 18K gold; the list is endless. So how does one know which gold is the best, which gold is more legitimate and which gold should one actually invest in?
Now some people can be really skeptical about deciding which gold to buy, because some traders may charge more for a gold-type that’s not as legitimate as he says it is. One tends to get confused not just by gold jewelry designs with price and weight but also with the quality of the jewelry because they don’t know what is worth what.
First, let us talk about the “K” in 24K. K stands for “karat” or “carat” and it is a measure of the purity of your gold. The purer your gold is, the higher the price will be. 24K gold is considered to be 100% pure, so now you can calculate how pure your gold will be. The lower the number joined with “K”, the less pure your gold is, and it should be cheaper than the gold of a higher karat value. To give you an estimate, a piece of jewelry that is 18K will be 75% pure gold, a piece of jewelry that is 14K will be 58% pure, and so on. So now every time you go out gold shopping, make sure to note the karat value of your jewelry and compare the price and the weight with the current market value of gold.
Now, let us come to the color of your gold jewelry. Now people tend to think that yellow gold is the purest, then comes white, and then comes rose gold. In a way, that’s true. Yellow is the natural color of gold, so generally purer forms of gold are bright yellow (20-24K), and as the purity lowers, the yellow becomes duller and duller till it becomes a pinkish gold colour (rose gold).
If your jewelry obtains its color because of its purity, you can determine it by looking at its karat value. But many a time the color is obtained by mixing the gold with alloys and polishing over the gold. In that case, you can again look at the karat value and determine if its low-purity gold that looks like rose gold or high-purity gold mixed with an alloy. The price of your gold depends on its weight and its karat value.
Now, it’s important to note that the alloy mixed with your gold also plays a role in the price of your jewelry. Sometimes you will find that white gold of the same karat value as yellow gold is more expensive. Don’t fret. White gold is made by mixing metals like nickel, silver and sometimes rhodium. These metals are expensive and so add to the price of the gold. If you are in doubt, you can always ask the jeweler about its composition.
Now, comes the final part – the design of your jewelry. The more intricate the design, the higher the price. This is because the cost of making the jewelry rises with intricacy.
So now when you are asking yourself the question – “Which gold is the best buy?” consider all the factors before paying the requisite price- the karat value, the weight of the jewelry and most importantly, the karat value. Few people will be more interested in diamonds than gold. They can check online for prices searching for “diamond rings with price” and buy in an easy way. Have fun shopping!
