Gold Jewellery

POSTALGOLD.com Everything You've Ever Wanted to Know About Gold Jewellery The purity of gold is calculated in carats The word 'carat' (or karat) comes from 'kertion', which is Greek for "carob seed'. It was originally used as a unit of weight in classical times. Most jewellery falls between the range of 10K (41.7% pure gold), and 18K (75% pure gold). The purest gold is 24K. This is usually not used for jewellery because it is too soft and malleable. High purity gold (22K 24K) is much more popular in Asia than it is in Europe or the US. The Different Colours Of Gold Since gold needs to be alloyed with other metals in order to create durable jewellery, jewellers create different types of gold depending on which alloys they use. Yellow gold- the most common type - is usually made by combining gold, copper, silver, zinc and/or cobalt White gold alloys can be made with nickel or palladium Red gold is created by making an alloy with copper Rose gold is the same as red - but with added silver Green gold is made by alloying gold with silver and/or cadmium Blue gold is made with iron Purple gold is alloyed with aluminium WHERE in the World Does Your Gold Come from? Asia - 26% Africa 18% South America - 17% Oceania - 13% North America - 16% Europe 10% It is estimated that 120,000 - 140,000 tonnes of gold have been mined so far About half of this amount is used for jewellery. The rest is used for investment, technology, or is stored in central banks The nation with the most privately held gold is India. Indians own about 18,000 tonnes of gold. Most of this is jewellery used for weddings. POSTALGOLD.com Sources: World Gold Council. Wikipedia, GMFS