
There were many pieces in circulation in the 1920s, but slowly the metal fell out of fashion and began to be more associated with antiques. Following the October Revolution in 1917, the nobility fled west and used these pieces to acquire property and other assets in their new home countries, earning rose gold the nickname “Russian Gold”. Rose gold was much beloved by the Russian elite in the early 1800s. You don’t want to end up with a piece that’s hard to resize if it’s an engagement ring, for example. But even with an 18K piece of jewellery, it’s important to know which metals have been used in the production process.

These colors are not only aesthetically appealing, but also tell you something about the metal’s durability and possible content. If you’re wanting to buy a piece of jewellery that can support a gemstone and won’t scratch and bend, you’ll want to go for around 18K – which is where most colored gold sits.Īs discussed above, there are many colors of gold. If you’re keeping gold ingots in a chest hidden in the Caribbean, you’ll probably want the real deal… but then you’re also probably an 18th Century pirate. So, is 24K gold the “best”? Well, yes and no. Colored gold, being an alloy, generally peaks at around 18K or 75% purity. Therefore 18K (75%) gold would be more pure, and therefore more valuable, than 10K gold. When discussing gold, we measure its purity in parts out of 24. While green gold, white gold, yellow gold and rose gold have been around for centuries, other more exotic colors of gold are more recent developments thanks to techniques such as controlled oxidation and other methods used to manipulate the metal’s surface.

They did this by using green gold instead of pure gold, which allowed them to sneakily buy goods from other nations at a lower cost. The Lydians were possibly the first people to use coinage as currency – and may also have been the first people to manipulate their currency’s value to benefit their exchanges with other nations. Green gold, one of the naturally occurring colors of gold, was discovered to be useful for both of these reasons by the Lydian people – ancient inhabitants of the Anatolian peninsula. Secondly, a precious metal like gold is costly due to its rarity. Firstly, alloys are often stronger than pure metals – especially in the case of gold which is a soft metal.

Alloys have been incredibly important throughout mankind’s history. When two or more metals are combined, either by heat and pressure below the earth’s surface or in a crucible, the product is referred to as an alloy. All colored gold obtains its hue due to the presence of another metal. Some colored gold is found in nature, while others can only be created artificially. There are many different colors of gold, all with their own unique history. What Are The Origins And Histories Of Colored Gold? They say all that glitters is not gold, but it turns out that gold comes in a variety of colors too! We’ve got everything you need to know about colored gold right here.
