Not all gold is the same - gold alloys in jewelry

How do the extreme price differences in gold jewelery come about, what are the differences in quality and how does all this relate to gold alloys?

One of the reasons why Maren Jewelery differs in price from other brands is the high percentage of pure gold. In order to assess whether the price is justified when buying a piece of jewelry, it is worth taking a look at the composition of the precious metals used, along with a number of other factors. Because gold is not just gold. Pure gold, also known as fine gold, is unsuitable for making jewellery. Why We would like to explain this to you in the following and show what differences there are in terms of gold content. So-called alloys, i.e. mixtures of different precious metals, are used in the manufacture of jewellery.atz.

Read here everything you need to know about gold alloys in general and which alloy of gold we use at Maren Jewellery.

Fine gold is very soft and therefore susceptible to damage. Therefore, it cannot be used for the production of durable jewelry. The material properties of the gold are therefore optimized by adding other precious metals such as silver, copper or palladium. This process of fusing gold with other metals is called alloying. To create an alloy, the individual metals are melted to form a homogeneous mass and harden again. The addition of the metals gives the gold more stability, so that it can be better processed into pieces of jewellery. Depending on the mixing ratio, different gold alloys are created, each with a different gold content. When choosing gold jewelry, you can then read the purity of the gold in the form of carats or percentages..

Gold alloys vary from country to country. In Germany, the standard gold alloys are 333 gold, 585 gold and 750 gold. The proportion of gold is given in parts per thousand by weight. The smaller the number, the less gold is effectively contained in the alloy. With 750 gold, the piece of jewelry consists of 75% fine gold.

Perhaps you also know information in carats. This is an older, but still very common in the jewelry industry identification of the gold content, in which the weight percentage (also fineness) of gold is given in 1/24 parts. 8 carats then correspond to 333 gold, 14 carats correspond to 585 gold and 18 carats correspond to 750 gold..

The gold content of each piece of jewelery can usually be found out easily from the hallmark. This is a small embossing in a hidden place of the jewellery. This marking may only be missing or no longer recognizable in the case of older jewellery.

When it comes to the gold alloy, at Maren Jewelery we have decided exclusively to use recycled 18k yellow gold and 18k white gold decided to create high-quality, long-lasting pieces of jewelry for you. This is for the following reasons:

Both of the gold alloys we use are 75% pure recycled gold. The high proportion of gold in 18-carat gold gives our jewelery its warm, yellow-gold or bright, white-gold color. The difference in the colors is caused by the different mixing ratios. Our recycled yellow gold is composed of 75% pure gold, 15% silver and 10% copper. The recycled white gold consists of 75% pure gold, 4% silver, 7% copper and 14% palladium (a platinum metal).

Because sustainability is one of our core principles, we particularly care about the durability and quality of our jewelry. Unlike gold-plated jewelry, the color of our gold jewelry remains intact in the long term. Due to its purity, 18-carat gold is a very resistant material. Therefore, our jewelry accompanies you for a lifetime, and future generations can also enjoy the preciousness of the pieces. They neither tarnish nor is there significant material wear during jewelry care. You can also find tips for cleaning gold jewelry in our Journal: Cleaning gold jewelry: It's easy to succeed.

Due to the 18 carat gold used, our jewelery feels pleasantly soft on the skin. The high proportion of fine gold also makes it the ideal companion for people with sensitive skin, as contact allergies cannot occur.