Article Base:
DIAMONDS
Chocolate
Diamonds
Colored
Diamonds
Diamond
Guide (The 4Cs)
Lab-Created Diamonds
COLORED
GEMSTONES
Emerald
Guide
Opal
Guide
Ruby
Guide
Sapphire
Guide
Tourmaline Guide
GOLD
Karat
Gold Jewelry
Gold Filled/Gold Plated Jewelry
Gold
Vermeil/Gold Wash Jewelry
MISCELLANEOUS
Birthstone
Guide
Titanium
Jewelry Guide
Reference
Links
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Guide
to Gold Vermeil, Gold Electroplate and Gold Washed Jewelry
What
is Gold Vermeil Jewelry? Gold
vermeil (pronounced VUR-MAY) jewelry simply indicates a layer of gold
applied over Sterling silver.jewelry. In order to carry the
designation gold vermeil, the gold plated jewelry in question must be
layered with gold that measures a minimum of 10k in purity
with a
minimum thickness of 2.5 microns.
During
World War II, the U.S. directed its use of base
metals toward
the war effort and consequently, costume jewelry manufacturers faced a
shortage of lesser metals with which to manufacture their jewelry. It's
during this period that a great deal of costume jewelry, formerly
manufacured using pot metals, was manufactured in Sterling silver, gold
vermeil and gold wash.
 
Above
is a Harry Iskin brooch in a stylized floral motif, marked 12k 1/20 GF
(gold filled). The other brooch, a flower basket design, is
gold
vermeil or gold wash over Sterling silver. Both pins date to
approximately the World War II era. Assuming that both
brooches
were worn and cared for in a similar manner, you can see that the gold
filled brooch shows significantly less wear than the gold vermeil/gold
wash pin, which is showing a good deal of wear to its gold plating,
especially around the base and body of the basket. This is a
good
illustration of the relative durability of gold filled jewelry if
properly care is used.
What is Rolled Gold?
The term Rolled Gold refers
to
gold plated jewelry that doesn’t meet the gold weight requirements of
gold
filled jewelry.
As
an example, a piece of gold jewelry may be marked, “1/30
12k” and it would be considered rolled gold, not gold filled, because
its gold
layer does not meet the weight requirement for “gold filled,” – meaning
the
gold layer used does not equal at least 1/20th
of the total weight
of the piece.
What is Gold Electroplate? Yet another subcategory of
gold-plated jewelry,
Gold Electroplate means your
jewelry
is plated with a minimum 10k gold that is a minimum of .175 microns
thick, layered
onto a base metal by electroplating.
What is Gold Wash? The term
Gold
Wash refers to a piece of gold plated jewelry that has been
electroplated
with an extremely thin layer of gold, even thinner than that which
qualifies as
gold electroplate. Of
all the different
gold qualities and designations we’ve discussed in this article, gold
wash will
generally show wear the fastest.
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