Home » Gold » Karat Gold Compared: 9k, 10k, 12k, 14k, 18k, 22k, or 24k? But what exactly does this term mean? Read on to understand what a gold karat is, why some Guld och Silver are more popular than others, and how to choose the best karat grade for your next jewelry purchase.
Karats of gold are simply a way of describing the purity levels of gold alloys — that is, how much gold they contain in proportion to other metal content. The karatage system considers the total metal weight of a gold item as 24 equal parts.
Any parts that are made of gold are called karats often abbreviated as k. Basically, the more gold something has, the higher its number of karats up to And so on, all the way down to 1 karat, which has only a single part gold to 23 parts other alloyed metals.
While karatages can technically be anywhere between 1 and 24, in practice, most fine jewelry falls into a few standardized karat ratings. In the United States, the four most well-known are 24k, 18k, 14k, and 10k gold. Millesimal fineness is another way of measuring gold purity.
Fineness is more often used internationally, while the karats system is favored in the US and Canada. Instead of parts per 24, the millesimal fineness system expresses gold purity in parts per thousand. You can also simply think of a fineness number as a percentage without a decimal point.
For example, a gold engagement ring that contains parts gold per thousand, is described as fine goldwhich is Under the karat system, the exact same ring is considered 18k gold. Because pure gold is yellow, all 24k gold is yellow gold.
For example, the pink tint of rose gold comes from adding copper to yellow gold, while white gold is made by adding alloy metals such as zinc, nickel, silver, or palladium. White gold pieces also often undergo rhodium plating treatments to make their surfaces whiter.
This means that the less pure gold in a colored gold alloy, the less of a rich yellow tone it has. For example, 14k white gold is whiter than 18k, because it contains less pure gold and more white alloyed metals. Before we move on to comparing karatages with each other, a quick note on spelling.
In the context of talking about the purity of gold, karat and carat mean the same thing. In another context, their meanings are very different. This is because in both countries, carat is a measure of the weight of gemstones, particularly of diamonds.