How much do you know about the rings on your jewelry stand?  Let’s take a look at your 10k gold ring.

The tradition of making gold jewelry goes back centuries and is still the most popular material for rings today. There are good reasons for this.  Gold is a beautiful metal and doesn’t react with the elements to tarnish or change colour, making it very wearer-friendly. Unlike other metals it will not cause staining or discolouration of the skin. Allergies can arise from using other metals, but rarely from using gold.  If your ring is a combination of gold and another metal, staining or allergy problems may come from the other metal.

Gold is also very easy to work with.  In its pure state it is very soft and does not wear well but it is very easy to manipulate into any shape desired.  It can even be spun into fine thread or beaten out into an ultra thin sheet or ‘leaf’ used in art and decorating. Jewelry made of pure gold is soft and needs to be taken good care of. Wearing a pure gold ring beside a 10k gold ring can result in the pure ring becoming worn.  Best to leave that one on your jewelry stand for a special occasion.

Today many people can boast having a gold ring on their jewelry stand but are all gold rings as valuable as the other?  Not exactly, the value of your ring can depend on other factors.

Just How Pure is your 10k Gold Ring?

The ring you are wearing on your finger probably bears a mark with a number and a letter ‘k’.  The ‘k’ stands for karat, which is the system used for describing the percentage of pure gold contained in a piece. The higher the number, the more pure gold there is in your ring. 24k is the purest gold, whilst 10k is the lowest, containing 10 parts gold and 14 parts of another metal, making it 41.7% gold. This is the lowest accepted proportion that can be called gold in the United States.  In Europe, the markings may be slightly different, and your 10k gold ring may be marked 417, for 41.7%. The karat marking should also be accompanied by a hallmark or trademark identifying the maker and the country of origin may also be stamped in your ring.

Amber gold jewelry is sometimes confused with gold jewelry, because the term gold amber is what designates the color of the stone and not the setting into which it is placed. An amber gold necklace will be a necklace that has golden colored stones and may be strung onto silver. Antique jewellery in amber is most readily available in celtic styles and made from pewter. There are exclusive antique jewelry reproductions also that many companies manufacture using new products but end up with older style jewelry pieces that look antique.

So when you are in the market for a piece of jewelry and you want to get something that makes use of gold make sure you specify this to the jeweler. You wouldn't like to buy an amber jewelry gift for someone special only to have it arrive and discover it was actually made of silver.