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 Gold values change from country to country and it happens
regularly. And with more shades of gold and more gold manufacturers, we face
various types of gold recently, namely white gold, Italian gold or Russian
gold.
The Europeans do not appreciate Chinese and Japanese gold
and the noble metal is ignored in Asia. Though, everything depends on the rate
of gold, its purity.Gold is known to be the soft metal. It is easy to press, tear
and cut. For the manufacture of jewelry from gold, it is melted with silver and
copper to get the alloy.
There are four rating systems of gold in the world practice though
the most popular are two of them: metric and in carat. The metric system is
highly demanded in Russia where the concentration of the pure precious metal is
shown in grams per one kilogram of alloy. So, if 1000 gram of alloy
contains 585 gram
of gold, it is 585th standard. And the highest standard is the 999th, though
jewelry is not made from this gold. It is used in space industry only. The
other standards, like 375th, 500th, 585th, 750th, 950th standards are there in
the metric system. 583rd standard was used before and now this gold is not used
to make jewelry also. The jewelry from the gold of this standard is antique and
there is a star mark next to the number there.
The carat system is available in USA and Europe and that is
provided only for gold alloys. The standard defined in carats shows the
proportion of pure gold out of 24 parts of alloy. So, 18k noble metal contains
the alloy of 6 parts, and in the metric system it refers to the 750th standard.
By the way, 585th and 583rd standards are absent in the carat system, since 14к
refers to 583,333333
gram per kilogram of alloy. Previously the number was
rounded to 583, though such gold was neglected in Europe. Therefore, the government
changed the rating system and made the 585th standard.
Gold from foreign countries
The Italians rarely wear the jewelry made of Italian gold,
apart from holiday events, the Japanese and Chinese store the gold jewelry as
the antiquities. The Russians can afford wearing golden jewelry all the time
while Deutsch people prefer buying gold from Turkey for everyday wear. And
again, it depends on the standards and carats.
The gold arrives as pure metal to the jewelry factory and
only the manufacturers decide about the alloy and color of the output product.
Traditionally the pure yellow gold is more appreciated in
Europe so some amount of copper and lots of silver are added to strengthen the
gold maintaining the natural yellow color. In Italy the jewelry is made from gold
of 750th standard which make them not so durable.
The quality of old in Russia is verified by heating getting
the red shade of the metal. Therefore, more copper was added to the gold making
the red color. When Turkey was introduced to the Russian gold, the metal was
strengthened with the pure copper ignorant if the technologies, thus having the
thin unique but not durable jewels of pink color. Later on Turkish jewels get
to add some silver to the gold but the alloy of gold with copper is also often
met in private workshops.
It is too complicated with Japan and China. They do not want
any alloys and they prefer the pure metal in its purity, and thus people more
appreciate the 999th standard. Such jewelry is impossible to wear for solemn occasions
and everyday wear. The jewelry is to keep as family relics.
Multicolor gold
The vividness and color of the jewelry depends on the gold standard
and the alloy. The yellow gold contains more silver, the red has more copper,
and the white gold has more palladium and nickel. The first gives the
white-snow shade and is expensive and the second is of yellowish color. When the
jewelry has the bluish shade, it is coated by rhodium. The majestic black gold is
received in several techniques when cobalt and chrome are added into the alloy,
oxidizing the alloy at the high temperature or the jewelry is coated by the
black rhodium or amorphous carbon. The brown gold fashionable recently is received
from the «Russian» gold with the high percentage of copper when exposed to
chemical processing. Blue (alloy with iron and chrome), green (with potassium),
purple (alloy with aluminum) and light blue (with indium) gold is fragile and
non-flexible and thus is used as the trimming material only.
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