For many people, the difference between gold jewelry and gold substitutes makes life extremely challenging for them when picking up various pieces of jewelry.
Many people will rather go for 10, 14, 18 or even 24kt solid gold. However, the price of gold is very high these days, so If you don’t want to or cannot afford the real karat gold, then you should consider either Vermeil or gold filled options instead. They are beautiful and give you the option not to have to purchase silver.
Any jewelry can be made from gold, gold vermeil or gold filled. Rings, bracelets, pendants and even memorial cremation necklaces.
You will want to make sure you are educated about the differences between the different gold jewelry on the market, when making a purchase. whether to buy Gold Filled or Gold Vermeil; both options out there are nice.
Gold Vermeil
Gold Vermeil is a gold-plated form of silver which is typically anything from 97-100% silver. Typically, the gold used here tends to be 18k-24k so you can know what you are dealing with. It typically has more gold on it than many gold “plated” pieces so they can be a great choice for those who want something with plenty of gold on there.
Typically, a Vermeil design will be regulated to ensure it has a minimum of 2.5 microns of Vermeil layering on the jewelry.
Typically, this can last for up to 40 years and keep that shine and style to it without going to over the top,. However, it can score with relative ease – even though it can be cleaned just as easily – and this keeps it looking smart and attractive for as long as it can.
The best thing about using Vermeil is that it tends to keep that class and quality about it in the years to come, making it a perfectly passable product to hand down to your loved ones as a gift.
Gold Filled:
Filling is quite different to your normal form of Vermeil as described above, even if there is no actual gold filling. This is actually a tiny layer of gold which is then bonded to a metal of some form – brass most commonly – to add that layer to it.
Typically, it’s known as “rolled” gold. This thin layer of gold is added on with high heat and pressure to ensure that they fuse together. Depending on the karat of the gold, the weighting of the gold will have to change – for anything over 12k, for example, the gold has to be less than 1/20 of the weight of the item.
This means that roughly the product is just 5% gold, meaning that it has far less “value” than the Vermeil editions above. They also have a very strong lifespan, though, and can typically last for several decades before they run out of quality and start to show through.
Whatever your choice is, though, you will now know that gold filled, gold vermeil and true full on karat gold all have similar properties in terms of how long they will last etc.
So, what will you go with?