Know your Precious metals

Before spending much of your hard earned cash on a new item of jewellery, it might be wise to understand some facts about each precious metal. We are often asked “Why does each type of metal effect the price range of a particular product? so we decided to put this simple guide together for our readers.

Precious Metals

This handy chart is designed to give you a quick insight into the most popular precious metal type including: Palladium, Platinum, White Gold, Yellow Gold and Rose Gold.

If you would like further information on different types of precious metals, we highly recommend the following articles.

Palladium vs Platinum
Top 10 tips before buying your engagement ring

Metal Type	Description	Facts
950 Platinum	Platinum is one of the rarest elements in the Earth’s crust and has an average abundance of approximately 5 μg/kg. It is the least reactive metal. It occurs in some nickel and copper ores along with some native deposits, mostly in South Africa, which accounts for 80% of the world production.	Platinum is generally non-reactive. Remarkable resistance to corrosion. It is not as toxic as some metals. Platinum is an extremely rare metal.
950 Palladium	Palladium is a soft silver-white metal that resembles platinum. It is the least dense and has the lowest melting point of the platinum group metals. It is soft and ductile when annealed and greatly increases it’s strength and hardness when it is cold-worked.	Palladium is lighter in weight. Does not tarnish in the air. Very rare but affordable metal. Palladium has been a precious metal since 1939
18ct White Gold	White gold is an alloy of gold and at least one white metal, usually nickel, manganese or palladium. Like yellow gold, the purity of white gold is given in carats. The term white gold is used very loosely in the jewellery industry to describe carat gold alloys with a whitish hue.	White gold is an alloy of gold. White gold alloys made without nickel are less likely to be allergenic. A common white gold formulation consists of 90 wt.% gold and 10 wt.% nickel.
18ct Yellow Gold	Pure gold has a bright yellow colour and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidising in air or water. It is one of the least reactive chemical elements solid under standard conditions.	Gold is a valuable and highly sought-after precious metal. Gold is thought of as a soft metal. Gold comes in 22k, 18k, 14k or 10k (karat). Gold is the most malleable and ductile of all metals.
18ct Rose Gold	Rose gold is a gold and copper alloy widely used for specialised jewellery. It is also known as pink gold and red gold. As it was popular in Russia at the beginning of the nineteenth century, it is also known as Russian gold, however, this term is now obsolete.	A common formulation for red gold is 50% gold and 50% copper. The highest karat version of rose gold is also known as crown gold, which is 22 Karat. Also known as pink gold and red gold.

You can buy any of these wedding ring product images for your on-line retail store as part of your own wedding band education library. You can also buy this chart that we have used for your on line education pages.

*White gold as having a nickel content falls foul of EU legislation, but is common in jewellery items outside the EU.