07-23-2003, 07:29 AM
Alex,
If you are referring to the starburst - It's made of 14K gold.
I believe it's made of 583 Gold (Russian Standard Mark) which is 14K.
This may benefit some members...
Gold is yellow and copper is red, the only two coloured pure metals. All other metals are white or grey in colour. The addition of a red colour to yellow, as every school child knows, makes the yellow pinker and eventually red. The addition of a white makes the yellow colour paler and eventually white. This principle of mixing colours is the same in carat golds. Adding copper to gold makes it redder and adding silver, zinc and any other metal makes gold paler. Thus, we can understand that lower carat golds, because we can add more alloying metals, can have a wider range of colours than the higher carat golds.
Thus at 22 carat (91.6% gold), we can only add a maximum of 8.4% of alloying metals and hence can only obtain yellow to pink/rose shades. At 18 carat (75.0% gold) and lower, we can add 25% or more alloying metals and hence get colours ranging from green through yellow to red, depending on the copper: silver plus zinc ratio. Thus at any given caratage we can vary the colour by varying the copper: silver plus zinc ratio. This can be demonstrated in the following table:
Gold is usually described in terms of caratage (karatage), which is an indication of its gold content, for example 18 carat or 18K. Alternatively, the gold content can be described in terms of 'fineness' which is the gold content expressed in parts per thousand.
Pure gold ('fine gold') is 24 carats (karats) and so 24 carats is theoretically 100% gold. In Chinese, it is also known as "Chuk Kam", meaning 'pure gold' and is defined as 99.0% gold minimum. Thus, there is a 1.0% negative tolerance allowed in this case.
The Caratage System
Any caratage value lower than 24 is a measure of how much gold there is in the gold alloy. Thus 18 ct is 18/24ths of 100% gold = 75.0% gold. In fineness terms, this is described as 750 fineness, i.e. 750 parts of gold per thousand parts. The table below gives the various caratages and their equivalent gold content in percent or in fineness terms as recognised by international standards. This is not always exactly the mathematical value! For example, 22 carat is mathematically 22/24ths x 100 = 91.666% but the accepted international standard is 91.60%
Definition of Caratage in gold content for recognised
international standards:
If you are referring to the starburst - It's made of 14K gold.
I believe it's made of 583 Gold (Russian Standard Mark) which is 14K.
This may benefit some members...
Gold is yellow and copper is red, the only two coloured pure metals. All other metals are white or grey in colour. The addition of a red colour to yellow, as every school child knows, makes the yellow pinker and eventually red. The addition of a white makes the yellow colour paler and eventually white. This principle of mixing colours is the same in carat golds. Adding copper to gold makes it redder and adding silver, zinc and any other metal makes gold paler. Thus, we can understand that lower carat golds, because we can add more alloying metals, can have a wider range of colours than the higher carat golds.
Thus at 22 carat (91.6% gold), we can only add a maximum of 8.4% of alloying metals and hence can only obtain yellow to pink/rose shades. At 18 carat (75.0% gold) and lower, we can add 25% or more alloying metals and hence get colours ranging from green through yellow to red, depending on the copper: silver plus zinc ratio. Thus at any given caratage we can vary the colour by varying the copper: silver plus zinc ratio. This can be demonstrated in the following table:
Gold is usually described in terms of caratage (karatage), which is an indication of its gold content, for example 18 carat or 18K. Alternatively, the gold content can be described in terms of 'fineness' which is the gold content expressed in parts per thousand.
Pure gold ('fine gold') is 24 carats (karats) and so 24 carats is theoretically 100% gold. In Chinese, it is also known as "Chuk Kam", meaning 'pure gold' and is defined as 99.0% gold minimum. Thus, there is a 1.0% negative tolerance allowed in this case.
The Caratage System
Any caratage value lower than 24 is a measure of how much gold there is in the gold alloy. Thus 18 ct is 18/24ths of 100% gold = 75.0% gold. In fineness terms, this is described as 750 fineness, i.e. 750 parts of gold per thousand parts. The table below gives the various caratages and their equivalent gold content in percent or in fineness terms as recognised by international standards. This is not always exactly the mathematical value! For example, 22 carat is mathematically 22/24ths x 100 = 91.666% but the accepted international standard is 91.60%
Definition of Caratage in gold content for recognised
international standards:
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Member #193
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Member #193
