The Differences of Gold-filled and Gold-plated Jewelry

Summary: Gold-filled jewelry and gold-plated jewelry, more often than not, look very similar to each other. It is sometimes not easy to tell one from the other.

Date : Aug 21, 2011

Gold-filled jewelry and gold-plated jewelry, more often than not, look very similar to each other. It is sometimes not easy to tell one from the other.

Gold-filled jewelry is composed of a solid layer of gold bonded with heat and pressure to a base metal such as brass; while gold plating is a method of depositing a thin layer of gold onto the surface of another metal, most often copper or silver, by chemical or electrochemical plating. For the gold-filled jewelry, the gold content must be at least 1/20th of the total weight and the gold itself is no less than 10 karat in purity. Under FTC regulations, the purity of the gold content must be part of the marking or designation. For example, a piece of gold-filled jewelry made with 14 karat gold filled could be stamped "14/20 GF".

Therefore, the biggest difference of the gold-filled jewelry and the gold-plated jewelry lies on the percentage of the gold in the jewelry. Apparently, the gold-filled jewelry exceeds the gold-plated jewelry in the gold content percentage of the same items.With relatively complicated making process, the gold-filled items are resistant to tarnishing as the outside layer is actually gold, which is thick enough to prevent oxidation of the inner material. While the gold-plated items, with a thin layer of gold deposited onto the inner metal, are more prone to tarnishing and the thin layer of the gold will much easier rub off. As the percentage of the gold varies, the price of gold-filled jewelry and gold-plated jewelry differs. The gold-plated jewelry is less expensive than similar gold-filled jewelry.

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