There are many different types of gold used to make jewelry, perhaps more than you might realize. Gold comes in a range of colors, karats, and coatings, each with their own unique properties.
From the famous to the lesser-known, this guide covers 15 fascinating gold types and what makes them special.
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Types of Gold Karats
Gold jewelry alloys are created by mixing pure gold with other metals. Their purity is measured using the karat gold system, which divides a gold alloy into 24 equal parts and assigns a karat number based on how many of those parts are gold.
24 karat, 18 karat, 14 karat, and 10 karat are the four most well-known gold karat grades used to make jewelry.
1. 24 Karat Gold
24 karat gold is the purest karat grade, containing 99.9% pure yellow gold. This metal is the shiniest, yellowest, and most expensive of all the different types of gold.
The high value of 24k gold makes pure gold jewelry highly sought after in many places around the world. Especially in Asia and the Middle East, where gold jewelry is often bought as an investment.
However, 24k gold is a very soft metal that quickly dents and scratches with regular wear. This drawback makes 24k gold jewelry less popular in the United States and other Western countries.
2. 18 Karat Gold
18 karat gold consists of 75% pure gold and 25% other metals such as silver and copper. The addition of these metals makes 18k harder than 24k gold.
This means 18k gold can stand up to greater wear and tear without bending out of shape. It can be used for finer and more delicate jewelry work, such as minimalist pieces, gemstone settings, and ring engravings.
Though 18k yellow gold doesn’t have the intense yellowness of pure gold, this isn’t considered a sign of low quality. In fact, 24k gold jewelry is so rare in Western countries that many people would find it “too” yellow.
18k gold, and any gold karat grades below it, can also come in colors other than yellow. White gold and rose gold are the two most common non-yellow gold colors.
3. 14 Karat Gold
14 karat gold is the most popular gold karat grade sold in the United States. It’s made from a mixture of 58.3% pure gold and 41.7% other metals.
14k gold strikes an excellent balance between purity, practicality and price. While not as bright or as valuable as higher karat grades, 14k gold is more resilient to damage, and is also significantly more affordable.
4. 10 Karat Gold
10 karat gold contains only 41.7% pure gold. It’s the lowest purity and least expensive type of gold commonly used to make jewelry the United States.
Though 10k gold is harder and tougher to damage than higher karat grades, its low purity equals a duller, less “golden” appearance. This makes it less ideal for meaningful types of jewelry, such as wedding and engagement rings.
Different Colors of Gold
Different gold colors are created by combining gold with other metals to change its color, or by surface treatments that affect only the gold’s outer layer while leaving its underlying color unchanged.
5. Yellow Gold
Yellow gold is the original gold color, and what most people automatically think of when we hear the word “gold”. It’s the most popular type of gold used in jewelry around the globe.
24k yellow gold is made entirely from pure gold. Lower karat grades like 18k, 14k and 10k yellow gold are created by mixing pure gold with silver and copper.
Yellow gold actually comes in a range of hues, depending on the proportions of its alloying metals. Yellow gold with a lighter or faintly greenish hue contains higher pure silver content, while yellow gold that’s darker or orangy has higher copper content.
6. White Gold
White gold is the most popular gold color for engagement rings. According to a 2023 survey, 39% of couples opt for a white gold engagement ring, with yellow gold coming in second at 31%.
White gold is created by mixing pure gold with copper and white metals. The white metals are what “bleach” the gold to white.
However, white gold still displays a warm tint from the gold’s natural yellow color. Many white gold jewelry pieces are plated with rhodium to make them look whiter and brighter.
Most white gold is formed from one of two alloy varieties:
- Palladium white gold is made with palladium, silver, and sometimes zinc. It’s the premium option because it contains palladium, which is an expensive precious metal.
- Nickel white gold is made with nickel and zinc. It’s the cheaper option, but should be avoided if you or the jewelry recipient has a nickel allergy.
7. Rose Gold
Rose gold first came to prominence in the late 1800s, after it was introduced to the Russian Imperial court by renowned jeweler Carl Fabergé.
Like yellow gold, rose gold is an alloy of gold, copper and silver. A higher proportion of copper is used in rose gold to create its signature pinkish color.
With some adjustments in composition, a rose gold piece can take on different hues:
- Pink gold uses more silver and less copper, which creates a lighter pink color.
- Red gold uses copper but no silver, resulting in gold-copper alloys with a darker red color.
8. Black Gold
Black gold, though not as popular or easy to find as other gold colors, has become more well-known in recent years.
Solid black gold jewelry doesn’t exist, since nobody has yet figured out how to make a black gold alloy. Instead, black gold is created through surface treatment techniques that affect only the gold’s outer layer.
Different ways to make black gold include:
- Electroplating – Bonding a layer of black rhodium or ruthenium to gold with an electric current.
- Oxidation – Heating a gold-cobalt alloy to oxidize and blacken its surface.
- Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) – Depositing carbon vapor onto gold as a black coating.
- Patination – Chemically processing gold with sulfides to produce a black patina.
- Laser treatment – Lasering nanostructures onto gold that absorb nearly all visible light.
Laser treatment is the only way to get a permanent black finish. The other surface treatments wear off over time.
9. Purple Gold
Purple gold is an intermetallic alloy of gold and aluminum. Unlike traditional jewelry alloys, intermetallics are brittle, difficult to work with, and easy to damage.
Very few jewelers produce items made with purple gold. Those that do use it only for decorative elements, as purple gold isn’t strong enough for functional components like ring bands and necklace chains.
10. Green Gold
Green gold is a greenish-yellow metal alloy made from gold and silver, with higher silver content producing a stronger green hue. Naturally-occurring green gold is called electrum.
Despite its name, green gold is not truly green. It’s more of a green-tinted yellow. Comparing yellow and green gold side-by-side makes it easier to tell the difference between them.
11. Blue Gold
Blue gold is the least common type of gold used to make jewelry. It had a minor heyday in the second half of the 20th century when a few pioneering jewelers discovered ways to turn gold blue, but failed to break through to mainstream popularity.
Blue gold can be made from an intermetallic alloy like purple gold, or it can have an oxidized surface coating like black gold.
- Intermetallic blue gold is made from gold mixed with indium or gallium, but neither formulation produces a strong blue color.
- Oxidized blue gold is created by subjecting certain types of gold alloys to heat. A rich blue color was produced in the 1980s by a now-defunct European company, from a gold alloy that included ruthenium and rhodium.
Types of Gold Coatings
The types of gold mentioned so far on this list are solid gold, as in gold goes all the way through the metal. Even the surface treatments used to create some gold colors (like black and blue gold) are applied over solid gold alloy.
Gold coatings, on the other hand, are when an outer layer of gold is applied to a less valuable non-gold metal, giving it the appearance of solid gold without the associated high cost.
12. Gold-Filled
Gold-filled refers to a cheap base metal (like copper or brass) that’s been coated with gold alloy via mechanical bonding. This bonding process physically melts the gold into the base metal so it can’t rub or flake off.
Gold-filled metal is the thickest and best quality type of gold coating, since gold alloy must account for – or fill – at least 5% of the total metal weight.
13. Rolled Gold
Rolled gold is created through a mechanical bonding process, just as gold-filled is. However, rolled gold requires only 2.5% gold content, which is half the amount you’ll find in gold-filled metals.
Rolled gold is often used for making high-end costume jewelry. It’s visually indistinguishable from solid gold and can last a lifetime if properly cared for.
14. Vermeil
Vermeil (pronounced vur-may) refers to sterling silver plated with a gold alloy of minimum 10k purity. The gold plating must be at least 2.5 microns (1/10,000 of an inch) thick.
Gold vermeil is made via electroplating: suspending sterling silver jewelry in a liquid gold solution and subjecting it to an electric current, which bonds the plating to the silver.
Though sterling silver is more valuable than the base metals used in gold-filled and rolled gold, vermeil costs less than both due to its much lower gold content. Vermeil jewelry pieces will also eventually tarnish as the thin gold layer wears away.
15. Gold Plated
Gold plated jewelry is produced by electroplating a base metal with an extremely thin 0.175 microns (7 millionths of an inch) layer of gold.
Gold plating is usually found on cheap fashion jewelry that’s not designed to last long. It’s a good option for trying out different trends, or for items you intend to wear only a few times.
Thanks for reading and we hope you found this information about the different types of gold useful. You might also enjoy learning about the different types of silver.