Stacked gold rings and a fine gold bracelet worn on the hand

Is It Real Gold? Karats, Hallmarks and Plating Explained

Solid gold jewelry is an alloy of gold and other metals, and the karat number tells you how much of it is gold. 14K is 58.3% gold, 10K is 41.7%, 18K is 75%. Anything described as plated, vermeil or gold-filled is a different thing: a layer of gold over another metal. Here is how to tell them apart when you are buying online.

What the karat number means

Pure gold is 24 karat. It is too soft for jewelry that is worn every day, so it is alloyed with copper, silver, zinc or palladium to make it harder. The karat is the share of the alloy that is gold, in twenty-fourths.

  • 18K — 75% gold. The richest color and the softest of the three; it scratches more easily and costs the most.
  • 14K — 58.3% gold. The standard for fine jewelry in the United States: warm color, hard enough for rings and bracelets that are worn daily.
  • 10K — 41.7% gold. The hardest-wearing and the least expensive. Slightly paler than 14K. It is the lowest karat that can legally be sold as gold in the US.

All three are solid gold all the way through. A 10K chain is not "less real" than a 14K one; it simply contains less gold and more alloy.

Reading the stamp

Solid gold jewelry is usually stamped with its purity, either as a karat mark or as a three-digit fineness number.

  • 10K or 417
  • 14K or 585
  • 18K or 750

The stamp is inside a ring band, on the clasp tag of a chain or bracelet, or on the post of an earring. It is small, so you may need a magnifying glass or the zoom on your phone camera. A stamp is not a guarantee on its own, but the absence of one on a piece sold as solid gold is worth asking about.

Yellow, white and rose gold

The color comes from the alloy, not from the gold. Yellow gold is alloyed with silver and copper; rose gold with more copper; white gold with palladium, nickel or silver. White gold is almost always finished with a thin layer of rhodium, a bright white metal, which is why it looks so crisp when new and why it can warm slightly after years of wear. A jeweler can re-plate it. The karat number applies to all three colors in the same way: 14K white gold is 58.3% gold, just like 14K yellow.

Solid gold, vermeil, gold-filled, gold-plated

  • Solid gold. The whole piece is the gold alloy. It does not wear through, and it can be polished and repaired for decades.
  • Gold vermeil. Sterling silver with a layer of gold over it. In the US the gold must be at least 10K and at least 2.5 microns thick to be called vermeil. It wears well but the gold layer is finite.
  • Gold-filled. A thicker layer of gold bonded to a base metal, at least one-twentieth of the piece's weight. More durable than plating, still a layer.
  • Gold-plated. A very thin layer of gold over brass, copper or silver. The color can wear through at points of friction within months of daily wear.

None of these are wrong to buy. Plated silver is a sensible way to get a gold look for a fraction of the price of solid gold. What matters is that the listing says which one you are getting. On this site, every solid gold piece has its karat in the title, and anything plated says gold-plated in the title too.

Why the price of solid gold varies so much

Three things set the price of a plain gold piece: the karat, the weight in grams, and the day's gold price. A 14K chain that weighs twice as much as another will cost roughly twice as much, even if they look similar in the photograph. That is why our product pages list the approximate weight, and why a fine 0.6 mm chain can cost under $200 while a wider one costs several times that.

Caring for gold

Gold does not tarnish, but the alloy metals in 10K and 14K can dull slightly over time and the surface picks up skin oils and lotion. Warm water, a drop of mild dish soap and a soft brush bring the shine back. Take gold off before swimming in chlorinated pools and before applying perfume or hairspray, and store pieces separately so chains do not scratch polished surfaces.

Some solid gold pieces to start with

Browse by color: Yellow Gold, White Gold, Rose Gold. For plated and solid silver pieces, see Sterling Silver. Our Gold Karat Guide and Materials Guide go into more detail.

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