The Nature of Gold

One of the most interesting things about gold is its number of uses. Certainly, gold has been and is used in jewelry. It has been widely used as actual money in the form of coins or as the standard for which paper money has been valued. It is also used in dentistry and medicine. As an excellent conductor of electricity, it has been used as wire and in the connectors of wires in everything from audio and video cables to the contacts in the production of computers and jet engines. Gold has uses in photography, medicine, ceramics, the production of colored glass as well as being used as a protective coating on satellites and in jet fighter planes.

Naturally the use of gold that we are most familiar with is that of jewelry. In that capacity, gold has been used as an ornament or piece of jewelry as far back as 2600BC. Because it is highly malleable it is relatively easy to work with and can be shaped into an infinite variety of shapes and designs. Pure gold, of course, is called 24karat, kt or fine gold. As fine gold it is generally used in the stamping and production of gold coins, but is too soft to use in the fabrication of jewelry. In this use it is mixed with other metals, called alloys, which change its hardness, give it a variety of colors and by changing its melting point allows it to be mixed with, welded to and altered or worked on in a variety of ways. When mixed with these alloys, the amount of fine gold used in any one piece of jewelry is reduced. This proportion of fine gold to alloy gives the jewelry its designation as either 10,14,18 or 22kt.

The largest consumer of gold in the world, India, produces most of their jewelry in 22kt. Most jewelry in the United States is produced in either 10,14,or 18kt gold. As a percentage of fine gold 22kt is .916%, 18kt .75%, 14kt. .583% and 10kt .416%. Depending on its country of origin a piece of jewelry may be stamped either the number percentage or the Kt. as in .75 or .75kt in instead of 18kt. Today, laws all over the world require that all gold manufactured as jewelry must be stamped to reflect its true karat. Thus all gold used in the manufacture of jewelry must be “plumb gold”, meaning that the gold stamp must reflect the actual gold content in the ring. As an example, all gold stamped 18kt must be at least .75% fine gold or 24kt gold. Gold imported into the United States if tested by US Customs and found not to be “plumb is usually seized and the manufacturer fined and or restricted from importing more jewelry into the United States. A jewelry manufacturer in the United States found to be producing jewelry not within these guidelines is usually fined, as it is a crime.

Among the most common alloys used in the fabrication of gold for jewelry are silver, copper and brass. Nickel was also used for many years especially in the production of white gold, but due to its toxicity it has been mostly replaced with a variety of white metals like antimony, tin and zinc. The percentages of each of these metals used in the alloy when combined with fine gold give the different karat gold’s their distinctive color. They are, for example what makes 18kt gold look different from 14kt gold and what gives the jewelry industry the ability to create a “white” gold from a metal which, in its natural state, is quite yellow.

Since almost the beginning of time, from Egypt to Rome and throughout the rest of the world, gold has been prized and valued for its beauty. While it has many uses in industry, electronics and medicine, it is the feel and look of gold worn or given to someone which has given the world its greatest pleasure.