Community: Library

Gold

The word "gold", used by itself, means all gold or 24 karat (24K) gold. Because 24K gold is so soft, it’s usually mixed with other metals to increase its hardness and durability.

The karat tells you what proportion of gold is mixed with other metals. Fourteen karat (14K) gold contains 14 parts of gold, mixed in throughout with 10 parts base metals. The higher the karat rating, the higher the proportion of gold in the jewelry. Even though jewelry doesn’t have to be marked with its karat quality, most are. Next to the karat rating, you should see the trademark or tradename of the company that the jewelry has originated from. The company’s name or trademark is required by law.

The word "solid gold" refers to any karat gold if the inside of the item is not hollow. The proportion of gold in the piece of jewelry is still determined by the karat number.

Jewelry can be plated with gold in a variety of ways, including mechanically plated, electroplate, or any other means of plating gold to a base metal. Eventually, gold plating wears away, but it depends on how often the item is worn and how thick the plating is.

Gold-filled, gold overlay, and rolled gold plate should be used to describe jewelry that has a layer of at least 10K gold mechanically bonded to a base metals. If jewelry is gold-filled, gold overlay, and rolled gold plate, 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 1/20^th of the total weight of the item, any marking must state the actual percentage of gold, for instance, "1/40 14K Gold Overlay."

Gold electroplate describes jewelry that has a layer (at least .175 microns thick) of a minimum of 10 karat gold deposited on a base metal by an electrolytic process. The terms gold flashed or gold washed describe products that have an extremely thin electroplating of gold (less than .175 microns thick). This will wear away more quickly than gold plate, gold-filled, or gold electroplate.

Guidelines:

Describe jewelry as fully as possible.
Be careful with any jewelry terms that you are listing. Use the above descriptions for help, or for further assistance, contact the FTC for more detailed descriptions of gold.
List the karat rating and the company tradename/trademark of the gold jewelry.
Depict the manner of application of any gold or gold alloy plating, covering, and coating.

Source:

All That Glitters...The Jive on Jewelry, August 1998, FTC
Guides for the Jewelry, Precious Metals, and Pewter Industries, FTC