Gold Jewelry Buying Tips from NYC Jewelers

There are many NYC jewelers that feature stunning gold jewelry designs. New York jewelry designers enchant us with new ideas each season. However, there is more to buying gold jewelry than meets the eye. In this article, we will discuss all things gold, from solid gold NYC jewelry pieces to vermeil and gold dipped creations. Read further to discover the best tips for buying gold jewelry directly from NYC jewelers.

NYC Jewelers & Solid Gold Jewelry

Solid gold jewelry means that a piece contains at least 47.1% pure gold. This seems like a random number, doesn’t it? Well, there is an explanation for that.

As all the NYC jewelers will tell you, gold is a very soft metal. In fact, it is so soft that you can’t make jewelry out of it unless you combine it with a stronger metal. That’s why no jewelry piece will ever be 100% pure gold. In the U.S. we use the karat system to determine the gold purity in an NYC jewelry piece.

24k is pure gold which, as we said, you can probably only see on gold lingos.
22k is the highest purity for gold jewelry. This means that the piece contains 91.6% pure gold.
18k means that you have a percentage of 75% pure gold in the NYC jewelry piece.
14k corresponds to a percentage of 58.5% pure gold.
10k, which is the lowest karat of a piece that can be considered solid gold, means that you get 41.7% pure gold.

As you can imagine and as NYC jewelers will tell you, the higher the karat, the higher the price. Of course, it is also true that high karat gold is less scratch-resistant than the low-karat one.

In Europe, solid gold jewelry is marked with numbers as opposed to karats. These numbers represent the percentage. This way, you can find pieces with the hallmark 916, 750, 585 or 417.

NYC jewelers advise you to also check out the gold color. It may surprise you, but there are many gold colors. Of course, only three of them are the most popular. The yellow gold is this metal’s natural color. It may differ in hues, depending on the gold purity in the alloy. Some pieces with higher karats may be more vivid than the ones with lower karats.

White gold, on the other hand, is not the natural color of gold. NYC jewelers obtain this color by mixing gold with white metals. Many white gold jewelry pieces also have a rhodium plating that protects them and enhances the sleek lustrous color. Rhodium is another precious metal but it can only be used in plating in jewelry.

Rose gold, and the favorite of this season is the result of a mix of gold and copper. NYC jewelers mix these two metals and the copper is the one that gives rose gold its stunning blush color.

NYC Jewelers & gold filled vs. gold plated jewelry

Besides solid gold jewelry, there is also gold-plated and gold filled jewelry. What is the difference between them? That’s for us to know and for you to find out.

Gold plated jewelry uses a layer of gold over another base metal. The base metal on jewelry can be anything, but it is usually brass. With gold plated jewelry, as the NYC jewelers say, you have to be very careful not to scratch it or use a polishing cloth on it. However, if some of the plating wears off, you can always re-plate the jewelry piece.

Gold filled jewelry is similar to the gold-plated one. You still get a gold layer over another base metal which can be anything. However, the difference is that, for a jewelry piece to receive the gold-filled name, it has to meet a special demand. The gold layer will be 5 to 10 times thicker than in the case of gold plated jewelry and is, usually, 5% of the total weight of the piece. Still, as NYC jewelers advise, you should still be careful with gold filled jewelry and not use polishing cloths on it.

NYC Jewelers & Vermeil

We covered solid gold jewelry, gold-plated and gold-filled so what is left? Vermeil, of course. This is a special name for fine jewelry pieces that meet two important conditions. The base metal of a vermeil piece needs to be sterling silver and the gold layer that covers the silver needs to be at least 2.5 microns thick.

NYC jewelers & buying gold jewelry

Now that you know the main types of gold jewelry, which one you should buy? For timeless designs and pieces you will wear every day, like simple hoop earrings or studs, we recommend getting solid gold jewelry. This way, there is never the chance of your pieces going out of style.

If you want to try new styles, big fashion earrings, oversized necklaces or other statement jewelry pieces, NYC jewelers recommend you to get gold plated or gold filled jewelry. This way you can build an entire jewelry collection in a short time and always be on trend.

And last, but not least, if you want a couple of versatile pieces that are easy to style, get vermeil. This is also a very good idea for presents as vermeil jewelry makes for nice and elegant gifts.

If you enjoyed reading this article, check out our other articles as well. To view Ana Luisa’s unique NYC jewelry collection, visit Ana Luisa online jewelry shop.

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Ruxandra

Ruxandra is a fashion blogger who teaches fashion stumped twenty to thirty somethings how to shop their jewelry boxes for polished new ensembles. Her work has been featured in Vogue, Fashionista, Nylon, and Refinery29.