Your Gold Purchase Guide

In India, gold is more than a precious metal, it is also a reflection of prosperity and auspiciousness. This can be attributed to the fact that as per tradition, gold was said to be adorned by the Gods. And bringing it home, meant bringing home good tidings for generations to come.

While there is a heavy sentimental attachment to gold in India, there is also a great deal of innovation done by jewellers. As more people choose to buy gold jewellery, there is a growing demand for innovative designs and crafting practices as well- which gold is capable of adhering, to due to its amazing malleable characteristics.

Purity

Measured in karats, the purity of gold determines its value. 24 Karat gold is the metal’s purest form, where it does not oxidise and is the most expensive. However, pure gold alone is very soft and malleable. Therefore, it needs to get alloyed with other metals to achieve the strength and hardness that is required to create useable objects, especially jewellery

But it’s important to remember that mixing of gold with other metals also changes its colour. 24 Karat gold without any alloys features a deep yellow colour with a rich lustre.

Gold items with purity in the range from 14K to 22K are alloyed with a combination of silver, copper, nickel and zinc. These elements add strength and change the colour. Any gold alloy combination below 14 Karat will render a dull and pale hue. For beauty, durability, and wearability - 14K and 18K gold are highly recommended by most jewellers.

Gold Purity

24 Karat - 24K Gold with 100% purity
22 Karat - 22K Gold with 91.6% purity
18 Karat - 18K Gold with 75% purity
14 Karat - 14K Gold with 58.33% purity

Color

In its purest form, gold has a high metallic yellow lustre, but when alloyed with other metals, such as silver, copper, zinc, nickel, platinum, palladium, etc. it displays various colour shades like white, pink/rose and green. (Exact text from Tanishq. Has to be rephrased)

Yellow Gold

Considered by many as timeless, yellow gold is the most frequently used and is usually alloyed with silver and copper. Depending on the karatage (14K, 18K or 22K), the colour of yellow gold may vary from a soft shiny yellow to a bright rich yellow lustre. Yellow gold is the ideal colour for setting warm coloured gemstones like emeralds and turquoise, as the shade of the gem itself will appear deeper.

White Gold

Harder than yellow gold, white gold features a bright and shiny lustre.

Often alloyed with a high percentage of silver, or a mixture of other white precious metals, such as palladium. Some white gold alloys are created by the use of nickel, which can cause allergies like rashes and itchy skin.

It is also important that you remember that white gold is never fully white. And to improve the whiteness, it is electroplated with rhodium. Rhodium is a platinum group metal, which features an exceptional whiteness and hardness. Rhodium plating, therefore, not only makes the jewellery piece look whiter, but it also hardens the surface layer, providing a higher degree of scratch-resistance.

Pink or Rose Gold

It is important to know that pink or rose-colored gold does not exist in nature, but is created by mixing the yellow gold content with copper, silver and zinc. The higher the copper concentration in the alloy, the deeper will be the rose colour of the resulting gold. Rose gold is available in a number of purities. Fancy coloured pink diamonds, pink sapphires as well as tourmalines are popularly combined with pink gold. This gold metal variant is a contemporary creation that is surely catching on.

Green Gold

Popular in the US, this shade of gold supports fair skin tones but is not particularly popular in Asia, due to cultural preference. Green gold is an excellent base alloy for fired enamels because it consists only of precious metals and hence doesn’t tarnish under the high temperatures required for the creation of fine enamel surfaces.

For the creation of green gold, pure gold is alloyed with silver to achieve the green-gold colour. Green gold is often used as a contrast colour in multi-colour jewellery designs and adds a spot of a different and unusual colour to an otherwise traditional appearance. (Exact text from Tanishq. Has to be rephrased)

So there you have it, all the basic information you need to know about gold before you decide to invest in it. Feel free to drop by your nearest Khazana, and explore our range of gold jewellery! And if you’ve got any more questions after reading this guide, you can definitely ask our store staff.