Precious Metal Guide

Gold
Although extremely beautiful, pure 24ct gold is too soft to be widely commercially used, and so it is mixed with other metals to make it stronger andmore resilient. The carat system for grading gold evolved to express the proportion of gold to other metals in a particular alloy. For example 22ct gold contains 22 parts of gold to 2 parts of other metals, while 9ct gold contains 9 parts of gold to 15 parts of other metals. The colour of pure gold is a metallic yellow, but other colours of gold can be produced by combining gold with other coloured metals. Gold is ideal for jewellery because it can easily be shaped and set with gemstones, and is easy to maintain.

Yellow Gold
Yellow is the natural colour of pure gold, butto make the gold hard wearing and workable, it is often combined with copper or silver, and occasionally zinc, cadmium, iron or aluminium.

White Gold
White gold is produced by combining pure gold with alloys such as silver and palladium. Nickel is no longer used in white gold as it has been known to cause allergic reactions in some wearers. White gold is naturally a greyish colour, and is therefore often plated with a metal called Rhodium - a member of the Palladium metal family, to brighten the colour of white gold. Rhodium is a very hard metal and has a bright white colour, so whilst it is too hard to be very workable as a solid metal, it is perfect for plating jewellery. Rhodium plating may need to be re-applied periodically as it will eventually wear off, and we offer this service here at Michael Matthews.

Rose Gold
The beautiful reddish hue of rose gold is the result of varying the proportions of copper and silver in the gold alloy.With all the same properties and values as yellow gold, rose gold is ideal for any kind of jewellery.

Silver
Pure silver is a soft metal and is usually combined with other metals, mainly copper, to make the more durable Sterling Silver. Sterling silver is 925 parts of silver mixed with 75 parts of other metals.

Platinum
Platinum is a silvery white precious metal, dense and malleable, resistant to corrosion and incredibly hardwearing.Thirty times rarer than gold, Platinum is the most expensive choice for a wedding or engagement ring but it has a subtle beauty and colour which does not require rhodium plating, and in terms of its purity, hardness and durability, it is unmatched by any other metal.

Palladium
Palladium is a precious white metal that is part of the Platinum metal family. Palladium is naturally white from the earth so it will never change colour or tarnish and therefore does not need to be rhodium plated. Palladium is 12.6% harder, yet 40% lighter than Platinum, and due to a similar price per gram to 14ct white gold, it is a very good alternative to Platinum.

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