What is white gold?
I love getting emails from interested web shoppers, and recently I received one asking for more information about white gold. IS WHITE GOLD REALLY GOLD? Karat white and yellow gold are basically the same thing. 10k white gold has the same amount of pure gold in it as 10k yellow gold. The difference is, when making different karat weights of gold (10k, 14k, 18k, etc.), the manufacturer has the choice of which alloys to use, and different alloys make different final colors.(If this doesn’t make sense to you, read our topics on karating or gold and precious metals information and see if that helps.) Pure gold has a yellow glow to it. But karat gold is not pure gold, it has other metal alloys in it. If the manufacturer wants the final product to take on a whiter sheen, he simply uses a particular mix of alloys when creating the karat gold. He can also use different formulas to come up with rose gold, green gold and other “designer” colors. IS WHITE GOLD RARE? White gold jewelry may seem ra
White gold was originally developed to imitate platinum, and is usually an alloy containing about 25% nickel and zinc. If stamped 18 karat, it would be 75% pure gold. And now you know. Join us again every weekday for a new CoreFact. For other CoreFacts, or for CoreCast, our in-depth science podcast, go to usgs.gov/podcasts. We are still happily accepting your science questions, so if you’re curious about something that we can answer, send us an email at corefacts@usgs.gov or leave a voicemail at 703-648-5600, long distance fees apply. The USGS CoreFacts is a product of the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior.
