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Gold fineness of jewelry - Just wanting to clarify if NZ has a different standard.
Waipori  
Posted : Thursday, 25 April 2013 12:30:54 PM(UTC)
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As part of a discussion about an old ring on the TradeMe Message Board, someone has asserted that "As for 'under 14K' that is a European standard, their equivalent of our 18ct." So they appear to be saying that there are two different standards of fineness for gold, one used in NZ and the other in Europe. I've never heard of this before.

Have I somehow managed to not pick up this rather vital info in my nearly 8 years in NZ? If there is a different standard, is it a UK versus The Continent thing? Or is this person just pissing in the wind?
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Metal Kiwi  
Posted : Thursday, 25 April 2013 12:41:41 PM(UTC)
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My understanding is that 14k was a European standard that was dropped in favour of the 18k standard.
However the gold content is more in the 18k than in the 14k.


MK
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Waipori  
Posted : Thursday, 25 April 2013 12:52:33 PM(UTC)
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So you are saying that Europeans tended to use 14k for applications (rings or whatever) where 18k is used elsewhere?

Edited by user Thursday, 25 April 2013 12:53:14 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified
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Waipori  
Posted : Thursday, 25 April 2013 1:01:13 PM(UTC)
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I'll put up the full comments:

Trader A:
Under 14k, probably not that valuable.

Trader B:
Value , like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
As for ' under 14K" that is a European standard, their equivalent of our 18ct. Would you also classify MH high priced 9ct rings as "not that valuable". Same goes for Warehouse , who have very high priced rings, 9ct & over $2000, which seems to be the industry norm for individual item insurance. OP , get it checked out you have nothing to lose & who knows you may have a really valuable ring.

I took this to mean that 14k in Europe is equivalent to 18k in terms of purity elsewhere. Trader B is then defending the value of 9k jewelry, in spite of the fact that it is below 14k.
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Scorpio  
Posted : Thursday, 25 April 2013 1:06:20 PM(UTC)
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Ive done alot of research into everything gold recently and as far i have found is that caret is how much gold it is (out of 100%)

So the ring which he says is 14K is equal to our 18CT is very wrong as 18CT has 75% gold in it and 14K has 58.5% gold in it....

This might help also
Arabic countries, Far East (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan), Malaysia, Indonesia 24-karat "Chuk Kam" (99.0% min)
Arabic countries, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka 22-karat (91.6%)
Arabic countries in the Persian Gulf region 21-carat (87.5%), 18-karat (75.0%) in most Egypt
Europe - Southern / Portugal 19.2-karat (80.0%)
Europe - Southern / Mediterranean 18-karat (75.0%)
Europe - Northern Germany etc. 8- to 18-karat (33.3 - 75.0%)
Brazil 18-karat (75.0%)
Russia/former USSR 9- (37.5%) and 14-karat/old 583 and new 585 проба (58.5%)
United Kingdom 9-carat to 22 carat (37.5-91.6%)
United States, Canada 10-karat to 18-karat (41.7-75%)

Edited by user Thursday, 25 April 2013 1:08:01 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified
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Shilo  
Posted : Thursday, 25 April 2013 1:07:30 PM(UTC)
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Don't get confused by a countries "minimum gold content" and the percentage of gold in a certain carat.

For example the "Standard" for America is 10k which means for an piece of jewelry to be called gold it has to be at least 10k
For NZ and Britain our standard is 9K, Italy has 18k as their minimum required gold content.

But the carats still mean the same percentage of gold no matter what country it is from.
9k = 375 = 33.75% gold
14k = 585 = 58.5%
18k = 750 = 75%
And so on.
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oroplata  
Posted : Thursday, 25 April 2013 1:14:52 PM(UTC)
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Yeah, he's referring to what different areas regard as "quality" gold.

It's sort of like "Super" and "Regular" petrol qualities, rather than referring to the actual RON value.
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tonznz  
Posted : Thursday, 25 April 2013 3:42:55 PM(UTC)
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It came to my notice recently that indian gold has hallmarks that we might not be familiar with. A mate brought a pretty cheap trinket at an op shop to find it was, I think 22ct gold . I might pop in to see him an have look on the way out today. It was smothered in precious stones he told me. It had marks on it but not what one would expect to see on gold.
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Metal Kiwi  
Posted : Thursday, 25 April 2013 3:52:50 PM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: tonznz Go to Quoted Post
It came to my notice recently that indian gold has hallmarks that we might not be familiar with. A mate brought a pretty cheap trinket at an op shop to find it was, I think 22ct gold . I might pop in to see him an have look on the way out today. It was smothered in precious stones he told me. It had marks on it but not what one would expect to see on gold.


I found a religious pendant which I suspect is Indian. It looks very much like gold and I was going to test it but when scratched across the acid test stone I could see the copper underneath. No markings on it but I suspect it is gold plated.


MK
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