24 carat gold jewelry
24-carat gold jewelry: why is this precious commodity becoming rare?
Since the dawn of time, gold has remained the precious metal par excellence.
Today, however, it is becoming difficult to find gold of the highest purity. Indeed, 24-carat gold jewelry is becoming a rare pearl. How can this phenomenon be explained?
Gold and carat: what is the relationship between these terms?
The complexity of the procedures to obtain pure gold partly explains the rarity of 24 carat gold jewelry. During mining, pure gold is not available in its natural state.
To obtain it, industrial refining is required.
Properties of 24 carat gold:
- Pure fine gold
- Malleable and soft
- Folds very easily
- Bright yellow color
Goldsmiths quickly understood the fragility of 24 carat gold and decided to combine it with other, more solid metals (alloys, silver and copper for example).
This is where the term carat was born, which corresponds to the percentage of gold in a piece of jewelry.
Manufacturers are also reluctant to make 24 carat gold jewelry because of the temperament of gold. It is indeed difficult to polish fine gold.
So is there any pure 24 carat gold jewelry?
For clarification, there are two methods for obtaining pure or 24-carat gold.
- The first is that of Wohlwill: a chemical process allowing the purification of gold to the highest degree 99,999%.
- The second is the Miller method: which yields 99,5% pure gold, lower than the gold produced by the Wohlwill process.
Despite the difficulty of design, some goldsmiths still offer 24 carat gold jewelry.
But this remains increasingly rare in France and in Europe.
Countries where it may still be common to find 24 carat gold jewelry:
- India
- Pakistan
- China
- Vietnam
- Cambodia
- Africa
It is in the collective unconscious to think that our old French family jewels are 24 carat gold jewels, thinking that at the time the quality of the yellow metal was more precious.
However, this is not the case, and family assets are generally in 18K (75%) which remains an excellent quality compared to our friends on the border who may have “only” 14K as in Germany or Greece.
Of course, those willing to resell their precious jewelry can also go to GOLDMARKET for a transaction with complete confidence.
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