What does the sample “925” on gold jewelry
Many people think that the “925” mark on a gold piece of jewelery means that it contains 925/1000 gold, or, in other words, it has 92.5% gold content. However, it is not.
What does the “925” sample mean on jewelry? 92.5% is not the standard value of the purity of gold, and it does not correspond to any commonly used number of carats.
The nearest level of purity in front of 92.5% is 22 carats, which corresponds to a purity of 91.7%.
If you see a sample of 925 stamped on a gold jewel, it is likely that this mark does not refer to the gold content in it.
925 is the standard mark used to denote pure silver, and this marking means that the silver content of the product is 92.5% (i.e. the remaining 7.5% consists of other elements).
Why are gold jewelery labeled silver?
Perhaps because the “gold” jewels that you are looking at are not really made of gold. It seems strange why the gold product is marked with a marking that is widely used for silver.
However, this is not surprising, and, most likely, means that the jewelry is not made of pure gold, but in fact of silver, which was gilded.
In this case, sample 925 makes sense, since it means the purity of the silver base, and not the gold coating. The “925” mark is usually imprinted on gilded silver.
Thus, if your gold jewel is marked with a “925” stamp, you will most likely have Vermeil gilded silver (pronounced vermei). This name is used to refer to silver jewelry coated with a thin layer of gold.
There are many jewelry buyers who do not really know what the term “vermei” means. Let’s see what gold verme is and how it is made.
How are the jewels made of vermei?
Vermeya or simply gold plated silver is a term used to refer to jewelry or other items made from silver and plated with gold. The word “vermeil” comes from French and is pronounced “Ver-mei.” Gold-plated silver Vermeil
An alternative term is “gilded silver”, which has the same meaning as “vermei”.
Gold-plated products are made by pre-creating a base of silver, which is then covered with a thin layer of gold.
The method used to apply gold to the surface of the product is called electrolysis.
Gilding can have varying degrees of purity, but in the United States there is a minimum requirement: to be considered gilding, a gold coating must be at least 10 carats (which corresponds to approximately 42% gold content).
Jewelery made of gilded silver. Further, US rules state that a product cannot be sold as gilding if its gold coating is less than 2.5 microns (0.0025 millimeters).
In addition, if the base contains another metal besides silver, it must be disclosed by the seller.
Gilding and durability.
How much gold-plated decoration will last depends on the thickness of its coating. The thicker the top layer, the longer it will rub off.
Carat gold is also associated with durability of the product: the higher the carat of the coating, the softer the gold alloy and the easier the surface will scratch.
How to find out if your products are really gilded?
If you want to make sure that the sample “925” on your jewelry means gilding instead of pure gold, the first thing to do is to check the jewelry for the presence of other markings.
The following signs are usually imprinted on gilded jewels – GP, GEP, RGP, HGE and HGP.
If there are no stamps indicating that jewelry can be gilded, then you can test it.
Jewelers make such tests by applying acid to a small sample taken from the jewels.
Acid tests are usually designed to establish a carat of gold alloy, but they can also help to determine if a product is coated.
Determination of the purity of gilding.
Acid testing can show the gold content of a coating.
Very often, gold-plated jewelry is covered with 22 or 24-carat gold, which is rarely used to make solid jewelry, since gold of high purity is too soft. How to determine the purity of gilding?
If there is any carat marking on the product, it may also indicate the purity of the coating.
For example, a mark of “22K” is likely to mean that the top layer of covered jewelry is 22 carats.
Carats are often expressed as thousandths (three-digit numbers) printed on jewelry.
