This is one of the reasons it is rare to find jewelry that is pure gold.
White gold stamps on jewelry.
As you can guess from the markings on gold jewelry there is more than one gold variety.
Although most people think white gold is a shiny white metal that color is actually from the rhodium metal plating that is applied to all white gold jewelry.
The properties of white gold including its color depend on its composition.
This means no additives.
Pure gold is 24 karats and.
Gold can be all the way up to 24k 999 or 9999 which indicates about 99 percent pure gold.
What does 24k stamp mean.
Look for other hallmarks or stamps that indicate plated gold such as hge gold filled plate rgp ep or 1 10.
While this is pure gold it is also very soft and tends to bend and scratch rather easily.
Often there is one stamp to indicate the purity of the gold 14k as mentioned above.
Without the rhodium coating white gold might be gray dull brown or even pale pink.
I m referring to the purity only not the color or style.
The color of white gold.
However other types of labels show that the jewelry isn t real gold but has been gold filled or plated with gold.
Different varieties of gold jewelry contain a higher or lower percentage of gold and there are a few standard varieties.
As a side note palladium is added to gold to make white gold.
A lot of jewelry will have several stamps or marks.
14k 1 20 pr 14k g f.
If your gold accessory bears these stamps then it is not real gold but is merely gold filled.
There are about a dozen numbers in between from 10k or 417 to 23k or 950.