DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WHITE GOLD AND YELLOW GOLD

White gold or yellow gold? 585 gold or 750 gold ? Entering the best luxury jewelery shops in the center of Milan you find yourself faced with a wide range of different jewellery, made with the most diverse precious materials. What stands out, in most cases, is undoubtedly gold, which can appear in different guises. The most famous types are undoubtedly two, namely white gold and yellow gold . These are two very common terms, which we all know, and almost all of us know how to recognize without too much difficulty. But what is the real difference between yellow gold and white gold ? What aspects of the production of these materials determine such a clear chromatic difference?

GOLD, AT THE ORIGIN

To understand what the real difference is between white gold and yellow gold it is necessary to take a step back: instead of looking at the jewelery shop window we must look at the rocks, and therefore at the alluvial deposits from which this very precious material is extracted. You should know that in nature gold is found in the form of grains, nuggets or specks. Here, in its original state, the gold is pure , and does not appear "hard" as we know it. In contrast, pure gold is extremely malleable, and is therefore not suitable for making jewelry. For this reason this precious mineral is integrated with other alloys , in order to create resistant jewels.

GOLD: CARATS AND THOUSANDS

Therefore other substances are added to pure gold. Think, for example, of 750 gold , or the most common fineness, also called 18 karat : it is gold that contains 750 thousandths of pure gold , to which 250 thousandths of other alloys are added. And this is what we wanted to get to: it is the type of alloys that are added to pure gold that determines the type of gold, whether white or yellow.