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When talking about precious metals gold is usually the one that most people talk about. Right now gold is at about $1600 per ounce and silver is hovering near $40 per ounce. Forty dollars is less sexy than sixteen hundred. If you look historically at the changes based on percentage silver becomes more interesting. I’ll go back a year to July 2010, silver averaged $18 an ounce while gold averaged about $1200 an ounce. If we compare the percentage change we get the following numbers. For silver it increased 222% and gold only increased by 133%. While the per ounce value is less, silver would of given a greater return on money used to buy bullion.

The price of gold hit a record high today. A troy ounce of gold hit nearly $1586. Is this a good thing, yes and no. If you are sitting on a bunch of gold coins you could sell them and make a handsome margin. For the rest of us the record price of gold is not a welcome indicator. The high price represents a variety of things. The first and foremost is that the value of the dollar is low right now. There is an old story that goes something like this. A man takes a wheelbarrow of money down to the store to buy a loaf of bread. The problem is that when he gets to the store he finds out that the money is worth practically nothing and only the wheelbarrow has any value.

I occasionally get the question, “Is white gold worth more than yellow gold?” The answer is not really. White gold as well as platinum are popular metals for jewelry right now. Yellow gold is still used but seems to be less “in” right now. At the jewelry store due to the popularity, a merchant may ask a premium for white gold over yellow gold. As far as metal value white gold is the same as yellow gold. You may wonder, “If it’s white then is it really gold?” It is, white gold has different alloying metals that give it it’s distinct color. The most common alloying metals in white gold are as follows; nickel, manganese, and palladium. The same karat rules apply to white gold. So a 14K white gold ring has fourteen parts gold to ten parts alloying metals, just like yellow gold.

white gold band

Hi There,
I wanted to talk about a topic related to precious metals. They say, “diamonds are a girls best friend.” This post is about how that “friend” is weighed. The common way to describe the weight/size of a diamond is by carat. A carat is equal to 200 milligrams. The weight of a diamond can be calculated by the following formula DxDxHx0.0061. Where D= to the diameter around the girdle measured at two different places in millimeters, H= is the height or depth of the diamond from the table to its point in millimeters, and 0.0061 is a density factor for the diamond. For a one carat diamond the formula might look like this:
6.5×6.5×3.9×0.0061= 1.005 approximately one carat. To break a carat down into smaller stones the term “points” are used. So a 1/4 carat would be called a twenty-five point stone.

H.G.E stands for heavy gold electroplate. There are many costume jewelry rings that are labeled 18K H.G.E. or 14K H.G.E. These are not solid gold, merely plated with a thin layer of gold. Another mark sometimes used is G.E., which is gold electroplate.  Do these rings have any value to them? Not as far as the gold content.

Placer gold is little nuggets obtained by panning. The placer that I’ve seen has ranged in purity from about 19K to 23K. It is often found in small pieces 1/4 inch or smaller. When panning the denser gold falls to the bottom of the pan while the rock and other debris can be washed off the top of the pan. Here is a pic of placer gold.

placer gold in a pan

Don’t do it period.

There are many scamsters in the gold buying biz. The mail-in companies are some of the worst. If you doubt me do a web search for mail-in gold buyer complaints. The best way to do it is to go to a bricks and mortar store where you can deal with a real person. I would recommend that you go to at least three gold buyers to get estimates. Check out the reviews on the stores that you plan to go to online. Make sure that they separate the gold into the different karat values and that the weights are similar from store to store. Also be careful with sites such as Craigslist. There are many predators lurking about to take advantage of a trusting person.

The purity of gold can be tested in several different ways. During the gold rush a common test was the bite test. By taking a chomp of their nuggets miners could get a rough idea of the purity of the gold by its softness.This is uncommon today and not a very scientific way of testing.

Gold is an excellent conductor of electricity. It can be tested by attaching electrodes of a gold conductivity tester. Depending on the resistance the karat value can be determined.

The most common way to determine the purity of gold is by using the acid test. The gold is tested by rubbing it on a piece of flat smooth stone. A drop of nitric acid is placed on the rub mark. If the mark holds color the gold is at least the purity of the strength of the acid used. In my test kit I have three different strengths of acid. I have acid for 14K, 18K, and 22K. With this kit I can get very close to determining the karat of the gold that I am testing.

Sterling silver is a silver alloy that is 92.5% pure silver. Sterling is used to make jewelry and flatware as well as service pieces. On jewelry sterling is often marked with “925″. On pieces like flatware and service pieces sterling will be marked with “sterling” or on some European pieces with a walking lion. Much of the flatware that I see is silver-plated. In order to be sterling the piece in question must have one of the previously mentioned marks. There are many companies such as International Silver that make primarily silver-plate. There is confusion because the word “silver” is in the name.

There are other purities of silver besides sterling. In Europe you may find 800 and 835 silver. In the US much of the Native American/Southwestern jewelry is made of coin silver which is 90%. It has been made from melted silver coinage.

Gold is marked in several different ways depending on where and when it was made. Most gold jewelry has a karat mark on it. In the US most is marked with the numeric karat value followed by a “K”. Here are some common karat marks: 10K, 14K, 18K, which stand for ten karat, fourteen karat and eighteen karat. Gold can also be marked as a purity percentage. These marks look like this 417 (41.7% aka 10K), 585 (58.5% aka 14K), 750 (75% aka 18K).