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White Gold or Yellow Gold?
When it comes to choosing gold jewellery, we are often guided by fashion trends, personal style, and colour or design preferences. It certainly helps top understand the differences in gold blends, colours and names, especially how they complement other precious stones. So why does gold come in different colours, how do we determine if one colour is more valuable than the other?
The Colours of Gold
Yellow is the original colour of gold, and that’s why 999 pure gold is the brightest yellow of them all. It is sometimes alloyed with zinc, silver, copper, palladium and nickel to give it a different colour and make it stronger and more durable. Rose Gold, one of the trendiest colours amongst women in the last decade, is alloyed with copper to encompass red and pink shades. The ratio of copper to gold makes up the value of the item- the more more copper used, the redder the gold.
White gold is one of the perennial classics of Gold colours- and should not be confused with platinum. While platinum is a metal of its own, white gold is actually a blend of pure gold and white metals such as nickel, zinc and palladium, usually with a rhodium coating to give it that extra shine.
Who’s the fairest of them all?
White Gold
A perfect complement for shiny baubles, the clean, white sheen of white gold accentuates the sparkle and shine of diamonds, and makes it an understated yet perfect highlight to your precious stones, especially diamonds. It is also much more affordable and malleable than platinum, and so it is usually the gold colour of choice for finer and more intricate designs.
However, as it’s softer metal, it can be scratched quite easily when worn on a daily basis. The rhodium plating on white gold also tends to wear away with time, so regular re-plating is recommended to keep its ‘white’ colour.
Yellow Gold
916 gold, or 22K gold as it is more commonly known as, basically means 91.7% gold, and 8.3% other metals. As it contains the second highest percentage of gold, it is usually used to make gold jewellery such as chains and bracelets, but it’s not preferable for diamonds and heavily studded jewellery.
Yellow gold is also a more classic and traditional colour, as it is the original gold that has spanned generations of female adornment. When it comes to gem pairing, it’s more suitable for stones of with yellowish tint, because of yellow gold’s warm glow.
So, White or Yellow?
There is no value difference between white and yellow gold, they show the same karat weight. 916 Gold technically holds the same gold content as 22K white gold. However, because of the difference in manufacturing process, which includes mixing and coating, white gold jewellery can be slightly more expensive.
The choice, is literally in your hands. As with all jewellery and accessorising, it’s always about matching the designs to your personal style, especially your fashion choices. Place your final selections next to each other and let your heart decide!
Take your pick of classic and modern gold jewellery from Citigems’ Selection, and find the one that our heart desires.
916 Gold: