Genuine precious metals are expensive. As of the date of this writing, the spot price of gold is $1,222.10 per ounce. That number varies daily, and it also has very little to do with what you pay for a piece of gold jewelry in a jewelry store. Since fine gold is out of reach for many, you may be interested in picking up a piece of jewelry that looks like gold, but…isn’t…quite.
Gold plating is an alternative for consumers who may not wish to pay for fine karat gold, but may instead want to achieve the look for less. After all, if it’s just the look you’re after, well, then the joke is on all the chumps who are shelling out for the real deal, while you sit back and admire your nicely padded bank account. When jewelry shopping, you might see designations in ads or on the price tag such as “gold filled,” or “gold plated,,” and wonder, what’s the difference?
There are several different types of gold plating techniques, and some are better than others. The biggest downside of gold platings is that they simply do not last. Depending upon the manufacturing process used, and how thick the plating, how long it will last on a piece of jewelry largely depends on how often it’s worn, and how carefully the jewelry is handled and cleaned. Fine karat gold, on the other hand, lasts just about forever. Ever heard a news report of some lucky treasure hunter who stumbled (floated? swam?) across a sunken ship filled with gold coins from centuries gone by? Well, the reason it’s worth hunting for sunken treasure is that gold does not tarnish or corrode, and it can last a very long time in the harsh environment of freezing depths and seawater. The ancient gold coins will look just as gloriously luminous as the day the ship went down. Genuine gold is impervious to practically everything. There’s only a finite amount of it, though, and since it is a natural substance which requires great effort to extract from the earth, real gold can be very pricey.
If you decide to go the plated route, be aware that there are different methods used for plating metals, and if you are going jewelry shopping, there are some signs to look for that may help you to decide how much you are willing to spend for a look-alike.
Plating can be applied by a few methods, including pressure bonding, dipping or overlaying, electroplating, gold washing, or gold flashing, and a technique called rolled gold. Each of these processes deposits a different quantity of gold onto a base metal.
If you are comparing techniques as to good/better/best, the plating technique that offers the most gold thickness is called Vermeil, pronounced “ver-may.” Here is what the Federal trade Commission has to say about gold vermeil, from the www.consumer.gov web site: “Vermeil, a special type of gold plated product, consists of a base of sterling silver that is coated or plated with gold.” The FTC allows a product to be described as “vermeil” if it consists of a base of sterling silver coated or plated on all significant surfaces with gold or gold alloy of not less than 10 karat fineness, and a minimum thickness throughout equivalent to 2 1/2 microns of fine gold. A micron is a metric measure and is defined as 1 millionth of a meter or 1 thousandth of a millimeter. An average piece of paper is about 100 microns thick, so that’s not much gold.
How do you know what type of plating or coating is on the jewelry you’re considering? Like with karat gold, if an item is plated, there should be a quality mark somewhere on the piece that identifies what technique was used, and the fineness of the gold plate that was applied. If an item was plated with 10 karat gold, the quality mark should look something like 10KGP. If an item is gold filled, the piece should be stamped with 9KGF, if an item is rolled gold, the item might be stamped 14KRGP.
Gold Flashed, or Gold Washed, are terms that describe products that have an extremely thin electroplating of gold (less than .175 microns). This will wear away faster than gold plate, gold filled, or gold electroplate. Gold electroplate describes jewelry that has a layer (at least .175 microns) of at least 10 karat gold applied on a base metal by an electrolytic process. “Gold filled” does not mean the jewelry is filled with gold. In fact, an item marked as gold filled is also plated, but the manufacturing process is different. Gold filled jewelry is usually heat and pressure bonded in multiple layers over a core metal of jewelers’ brass.
One of the many desirable properties of gold is that it is extremely malleable. According to www.chemicool.com, one ounce of gold can be drawn into a wire 1,250 miles long (if the thickness was 1 micron). This means that you could make a gold wire long enough to go around the earth with just 20 ounces of gold. A layer of gold can be applied so thinly you could read a newspaper through it. Ever seen a baseball card with a gold overlay? Yeah, that’s really gold, but it’s also really thin gold.
Finally, you may have heard of a type of plating called gold foil or leaf. This is a process whereby gold is hand-hammered into very thin sheets. The sheets are then wrapped or applied to jewelry as an embellishment or fine detail. It can also be melted and either painted onto furniture, a picture frame, vase, or art object as decoration.
If you decide to save your hard-earned dollars for something more important to you than jewelry, and you are willing to go the gold plated route, go with vermeil. Gold plating is available in all of the gold colors, such as white gold, which may be the best option. Since the underlying metal is sterling silver, and not an unsightly mystery metal which may eventually show through, or irritate your skin after the plating wears off, you’ll probably get the best and longest wear out of a white gold vermeil, which is what matters if it’s a design you really like. I promise, I won’t tell, so sparkle on!
Laura
Laura Legendary is a speaker, author, and educator specializing in disability awareness, advocacy, accessibility, and assistive technology. She is also a jewelry designer and the owner of Elegant Insights Braille Creations at elegantinsightsjewelry.com/. Elegant Insights offers a distinctive collection of jewelry and accessories, all handcrafted, made in the USA, and embossed in braille. Follow us on Twitter @ElegantInsights, Instagram at www.instagram.com/elegantinsights or Facebook at www.facebook.com/Elegant.Insights