What is White Gold and Where Does It Come From?
There is no such thing as white gold! There are however gold alloys which appear white, silvery, or grey. When jewellersspeak of white gold, they mean white gold alloys. In most other major languages these alloys are described as grey rather than white. We will stick to “white”. Gold Alloys Gold itself is a yellow metallic element but, in its pure form, it is too soft to be used for general jewellery purposes, although there are some cultures which do wear pure gold jewellery, it would need to be heavily made and carefully used. The yellow colour of gold is caused by gold absorbing violet and blue light, but reflecting yellow and red light. It is usual for gold to be mixed with other metals to produce an alloy, which is simply a mixture of two or more metals. Throughout history, most people have preferred the colour of gold jewellery to remain close to that of pure gold itself, and so most jewellery has historically been made using yellow gold alloys. Other metals mixed with gold to pr
