Did you know that often pure 24-karat gold is too soft to be able to be used for jewelry, in which case the gold is alloyed with other metals such as silver, copper, zinc, or silicon, producing the lower karats?
Have you ever wondered why the symbol for gold (Au) on the Periodic Table of Elements doesn’t make as much sense as, say, Neon (Ne)? We actually get the Au from gold’s Latin name: aurum.
Did you know that the more yellow a piece of gold is, the more pure gold it contains? However, adding different metals and alloys to gold can make the gold appear different colors, so it is typically best to look for the karat marking on the inside of your jewelry.
Alloyed gold comes in many colors. Variations in metals alloyed with gold are able to produce white, pink, and green gold, in addition to the familiar yellow. Pink gold was popular in late Victorian times and in the 1940s. White was popular from 1900 through 1930.
Gold is an elemental metal, and goes by Au on the Periodic Table. This is because the Romans referred to it as aurum, or "shining dawn." The relates back to the Greek idea that gold was a solidified combination of water and sunlight.
Beads are one of the earliest forms of trade. Some historians guess that humans began communicating because they needed to establish these trades — which demonstrates just how important jewelry was even then!
Did you know that gold has been receiving some of the highest prices in recent memory for the last couple of years? Why not take advantage of the moment by selling some of your unwanted jewelry and using the money for something you will treasure?
Have you ever wondered how earth came to have such an incredible amount of gold embedded in its layers? Well, nearly all of the gold on earth came from meteorites that continually bombarded the planet more than 200 million years after it formed.
Over time, you may have lost track of the true value of your gold jewelry. When you want to clear up the excess hanging around your jewelry box, we will evaluate each piece and let you know its value, and how we arrived at that figure.
When measuring precious metals and stones, the standard for jewelers is to use a pennyweight and Troy ounce. These go back to 1500s England, and have been used for centuries by jewelers. To give you an idea how much that is, 1 pennyweight is about 1.555 grams.
These days, the weight of gold can be determined in several different weights. A generic U.S. scale measures 28 grams per ounce, while jewelers traditionally use Troy ounces (each of which equals 31.1 grams). In addition, some dealers use pennyweights (equal to 1.56 grams).
In 1717, England became the first country to institute a gold standard. This meant that currency would be linked to gold at a fixed rate. In the 18th century, England began using paper money instead of precious metal coins.
Since gold is so soft and malleable, it can be rolled flat to make gold leaf, which has been used in historical frescos or to cover wood carvings.
Did you know that the early Egyptians were the first to smelt gold? In 3600 BC, Egyptian goldsmiths carried out the first smelting of gold so as to separate the precious metals inside of it. Blow pipes made from fire-resistant clay were used to heat the smelting furnaces.
Interestingly, gold is the only metal on the Earth that is yellow or golden. While other metals may develop a yellowish color, this is not organic, and occurs after the metal has been oxidized or reacted with other chemicals.
So how does the karat system work? Basically, one karat equals 1/24 of pure gold by weight. Thus, a 14-karat piece of jewelry would mean that the piece was 14 parts gold and 10 parts other metals. Only 24-karat gold is pure.
It’s important to understand that the weight and purity of the gold combine to determine its value. Thus, we will look both at the weight of your pieces in Troy ounces and also their karat (or percentage of pure gold).
The ancient Incas tribe thought that gold represented the glory of their sun god and referred to this precious metal as “tears of the Sun.” As gold was not yet used for money, the Inca’s love of gold was purely aesthetic and religious.
Are you confused by the measurements used to weigh gold? Here’s a rough measurement that can simplify things for you. Basically, the weight of one penny coin equals 1.5 pennyweights. Another comparison measurement to use: 1.5 kitchen grams equals 1 pennyweight.
Sadly, not all of your yellow metal jewelry will have enough gold to make purchasing it worthwhile. But don’t worry. A gold buyer can separate out the gold from the not gold and give you a good price on your gold jewelry.
Whenever you’re selling a piece of jewelry with sentimental value, remember to stay objective about the object’s actual value. If the difference between the two values is too great for you, it’s okay to walk away from the deal.
Basically, gold has been an international measure of wealth practically since the dawn of history? In fact, as they evolved, ancient cultures came to express and use gold weights and value according to their own customs.
There are three things that figure into the price of a piece of gold jewelry. The (quality) purity of the gold, its weight, and the labor associated with its manufacture and sale. The prices we offer for jewelry are based on purity and weight.
Interestingly, it was the ancient Egyptians who started casting gold using what’s known as a lost wax technique. Today, this technique is at the heart of jewelry making. Egyptians also started to alloy gold to create color variations.
Did you know gold is highly malleable? Gold can be stretched to one-tenth of the diameter of human hair and can even be stretched 50 miles long and 5 microns in diameter.
Gold is powerful. Nations around the world with centralized banking reserves, used for storing currency, diversity their monetary reserves away from paper currency and instead store gold.
Did you know that most gold jewelry is either 18-karat or 14-karat gold? This means that it contains 75 percent or 58.3 percent of pure gold.
