Gold Facts

Karat?

Definition: The karat system is used to state the amount of pure gold found in an item.

•   24 karat (24K) gold is pure gold.

•   18 karat (18K) gold contains 18 parts gold and 6 parts another metal or metals, making it 75% gold.

•   14 karat (14K) gold contains 14 parts gold and 10 parts another metal or metals, making it 58.3% gold.

•   10 karat (10K) gold contains 10 parts gold and 14 parts another metal or metals, making it 41.7% gold.

Most jewelry is marked with its karat quality, although marking is not required by law.

Solid gold refers to an item made of any karat gold, if the inside of the item is not hollow. The proportion of gold in the piece of jewelry still is determined by the karat mark.

Jewelry can be plated with gold in a variety of ways. Gold plate refers to items that are either mechanically plated, electroplated, or plated by any other means with gold to a base metal.

Gold-filled, gold overlay and rolled gold plate are terms used to describe jewelry that has a layer of at least 10 karat gold mechanically bonded to a base metal. If the jewelry is marked with one of these terms, the term or abbreviation should follow the karat quality of the gold used (for example, 14K Gold Overlay or 12K RGP). If the layer of karat gold is less than 1/20th of the total weight of the item, any marking must state the actual percentage of karat gold, such as 1/40 14K Gold Overlay.

Gold Facts