Gold is an all-time favourite metal for jewellery. While we mostly sell sterling silver jewellery for teenagers, as these girls hit sixteen and older, they may start to show a preference for gold jewellery instead.

But when buying gold jewellery as a gift, how do you know what’s good and what’s not? The ‘carat’ or ‘karat’ of a piece is used to explain the purity of the gold used. This article will explain exactly what that means so you can buy jewellery without a worry in the future!

Karat or Carat?

An important side note of this article. You’ll see that gold jewellery is described as 9ct or 9kt. Karat is more often used in America and we use Carat in the UK. So as we are a UK company, based in Devon, we’ll stick to ‘ct’ since it’s what we know!

What Carat Is Pure Gold?

Pure gold is 24 carats, which means that the piece of jewellery is made from 100% gold. However, you’ll probably notice that you’ll struggle to find a piece of jewellery which is entirely 24ct gold.

This is simply because pure gold isn’t a great metal to make jewellery from! It’s very soft so it bends and scratches easily. As a result, gold is mixed with other metals to make it more durable, and this is why we have the carat system.

These metals are alloys like copper, silver, nickel or zinc.

What Is A Carat?

Ready for a little maths? A carat measures the proportion of pure gold in an alloy of 24 parts. The actual formula is (number of carats / 24) x 100 = % of pure gold.

So using that formula, we know that 18ct gold is 75% gold. Here’s a quick summary of the most often used carats:

24ct = 100% gold (pure)
22ct = 91.7% gold
18ct = 75% gold
14ct = 58.3% gold
10ct = 41.7% gold

Gold Plated Jewellery

One of the best ways to buy affordable gold jewellery is to purchase gold plated pieces. The best base metal for gold plating is stainless steel because it doesn’t react to other metals.

However, you may notice lower carat gold jewellery turning green after a little while, which is caused by the alloys in the gold reacting with the outside environment.

Gold Stamps And Hallmarks

When buying gold jewellery, you can double check it’s authenticity by seeing if it is stamped or hallmarked. Most is stamped with its carat mark which could be 18K or 14K, etc. You’ll also see stamps which describe the percentage which the piece is gold, so if you se 750 stamped on your jewellery, then it’s 18K gold.

Summary

The carat of the gold you’re buying is really important. It influences the way the piece looks, its value and practicality. Here at Sparkle, because we sell jewellery for teenagers, we only stock gold plated jewellery. You can find some stunning pieces for your favourite teenager’s birthday or Christmas.

Plus, we gift wrap and post your purchase for free!