Gold, Silver and Platinum - Understanding the Purity Markings

Gold, silver and platinum are three of the most popular precious metals used today in jewelry, but most people don't know how to judge the quality of the pieces they look at. Fortunately, each type of jewelry has a set of symbols that reveals its purity.

Gold

Since gold is a soft metal, it is usually mixed with other metals to produce an alloy. On American-made gold jewelry, look for a mark such as 10K, 14K or 18K. On European-made gold jewelry, look for a decimal, like.585,.750 or something similar. here's what they indicate:

10K or.417 is 10 karat or 42% pure gold.
14K or.585 is 14 karat or 58% pure gold.
18K or.750 is 18 karat or 75% pure gold.
24K or.999 is 24 karat or 100% pure gold.

You might also find the following marks on gold jewelry:

HGE (Heavy Gold Electroplate) indicates gold-plated jewelry.
1/8 18kGF, or a similar mark, would indicate gold-filled jewelry. In this example, the gold layer is 18 karat and makes up 1/8 of the total weight of the metal in the piece.

Silver

Silver is stronger than gold, and so silver jewelry is typically made with a high level of purity. The most common mark is.925, which designates the piece as sterling silver with 92.5% purity. Other marks you might see include.800,.813 and.999.

Vintage English silver jewelry may have a stamp of a walking lion to indicate.925 sterling.

Platinum

Like silver, platinum is a strong metal and platinum jewelry usually has a very high purity level. Any piece that is at least 95 percent pure can be marked simply as "platinum" or "950 Platinum".

Jewelry that is slightly less pure can be marked with the content followed by "Plat." or "Pt.", as in "850Pt" or "900Plat".

Jewelry that has at least 50% platinum content and at least 95% "platinum group metal" (platinum, iridium, palladium, ruthenium, rhodium, or osmium) content can be marked as platinum jewelry, as long as the percentage of each metal is disclosed. For example: "700Pt. 150Pall. 100Irid." would be a valid marking.

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Authenticity and Purity Scratch Testing for Silver

With genuine interest in silver, many people collect sterling silver jewelry. Sterling silver contains at least 92.5% of pure silver. Jewelry acquired from unknowledgeable persons or outright criminals can result in fervent dissatisfaction. Brass or copper covered with an electroplated layer of sterling silver shines nicely for awhile, many times labeled 'SP' (silver plated) and might be worth buying if we know that it is plated. But when others deceive by charging pure sterling silver prices on unlabeled jewelry, we will likely get a little upset when we discover fraud. Collectors and anyone intent on certainly knowing the quality of the silver that they purchase learn how to test for authenticity and purity, leaving no room for question.

Silver-looking pieces contain base metals polished up to resemble silver. But sterling silver jewelry is generally labeled '.925' for its purity or may be marked 'SS' (sterling silver). We shouldn't assume anything about the content of silver if the jewelry lacks these markings. Many times, a clasp reveals the '.925' or 'SS' that we can better see with a jeweler's magnifying glass. We must then check the color of the clasp against the color of the rest of the piece because we just don't know that one plus one equals two pieces of sterling silver. Check the pendant, too, if the piece includes one.

Our Testing Kit should include a jeweler's file, as well. The tests we do will only detect the presence and purity of silver. Without scratching an inconspicuous place on the piece, enough to remove a slight portion of the plating possibly present, our test when done directly on the metal will only show the silver content of the thin layer covering the jewelry. Conversely, sometimes sterling silver, itself, is plated with fine silver, 99.9% pure, giving even a greater brilliance to the shine.

We must handle the most useful part of the kit with caution-nitric acid; the corrosive nature of the sour substance can severely burn us. Keep sodium bicarbonate or baking soda with a first aid kit to neutralize the remaining acid after flushing with a lot of water, in case of skin contact.

Our kit should also include a rectangular acid testing stone, black in color. With this set-up, we must press the piece of jewelry we want to test firmly against the black stone and scratch it along the stone for about an inch. We want a large, thick, noticeable mark brought to bear on the black stone. When we expose a drop of the acid used in the test to the deposit of silver scratched on the black stone, the chemical reaction will produce one of a variety of colors, which will indicate the presence of silver and its purity. Consider the black color background of the stone in your visual check of the following colors you may see. You shall see a creamy color when the reaction conveys a 90 to 100% silver purity, a gray color conveys 77 to 90% purity, and a light green conveys 65 to 75% silver and probably means it's a plated piece of base metal. You can also scratch through the possible plating in an inconspicuous place on the jewelry, and apply a drop directly to the piece. It will, however, dull it there and leave a mark where where we apply the acid.

Check online for a choice of suppliers to obtain a kit. Test some unique silver bracelets.

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