Precious Metals
The best known precious metals traditionally have been the coinage metals, which are gold and silver. Both do have industrial uses, but most known for use coinage and jewelry. Historically, precious metals were used as currency but today mainly as investment and/or industrial material. Gold, silver, and platinum are most commonly known in jewelry, but others including palladium, rhodium, and iridium are far more rare and scarce. Precious metals relative to jewelry in the trade we refer to as ‘THE NOBLE METALS’.
They are rare natural metallic chemical elements valued highly mainly due to scarcity. They are most corrosion resistant and less chemically reactive than most elements, also quite ductile and have a high luster and shine. The other precious metals included as part of the platinum group metals: ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum, of which platinum is the most widely traded. The demand for precious metals is driven not only by their practical use but also by their role as investments and a store of value.
MINT MARKS
Most jewelry will have a mint mark or stamp indicating metal utilized in its fabrication. Left are the most common mint marks.
Gold jewelry in generally separated in category by fineness or purity. Pure gold consists of 24 Karat (with a ‘k’) indicating the parts out of 24 containing gold. 18k, 22k, 14k, 10k etc. indicates the gold content by number of parts out of 24. Simple math will determine gold purity for example 18k of 24k equals 75% gold, with 25% alloy (other metals). Sometimes a stamp may be found on jewelry with three-digit number illustrating karat purity for example ‘750’ stamp. This indicates parts per 1,000 of gold, so 750 would be 18k or 75% gold. 14k would be shown as 585, indicating 58.5% gold (14 of 24 parts gold) etc., etc. Silver (sterling) would be indicated as 925, while platinum should be stamped 950 (95%). In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission regulates the standards and violators are prosecuted, unlike many other countries hence beware of the promises of gold sellers if they are unknown to you.