Shopping for Jewellery / Consumer advice by Jim Casnig
When shopping online or in a store consumers need to consider that sellers may not always specify gold filled or gold plated when advertising an item for sale. Items may be advertised with many features but if the words solid gold are not in the description it is probably not solid gold.
Pricing can be confusing and manufacturers exploit this to the consumers dismay often. If there is a lot of work or detail in a gold plated or gold filled piece it may be practical to keep it affordable. Not everyone can afford real Rolex or Cartier watches which is why good imitation jewellery is always going to be popular, but sometimes you will find them priced just under what you might pay for perhaps a thinner, genuine solid gold necklace chain. So you pay almost the same price for a large or heavy filled one as you might have paid for solid gold in a smaller item. Thats something to keep in mind when shopping for gold jewellery online or in a store.
Below are basic descriptions of the difference between the two most commonly used faux gold.
Gold plated jewellery is just as it sounds, electroplated jewellery that is prone to surface wear. Gold filled jewellery is made by heating and pressure-bonding a layer of solid sheet gold to another metal and less likely to wear for years. The best of these will use brass as the core metal and the cheaper gold filled manufacturers use cheaper base metal(s).Commonly you will find 12/20 gold filled and a higher standard if available is 14/20. The first number refers to the quality of the gold used and the second is the amount used. (eg) 12/20 = 12 Karat gold comprising 1/20 of the weight of the item.
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