Gold Filled Gold Plated Jewelry Markings

Some other markings mean a jewelry item is not fine karat gold.

Gold filled gold plated jewelry markings.

You may also see gep which means gold electroplated and rgp meaning rolled gold plate. The most common stamp used in gold plated jewelry is gp standing for gold plated. Hge for heavy gold electroplate is another mark that indicates gold plating you can also see hgp. Like gold plated jewelry some gold filled jewelry has a thicker layer of gold than other gold filled jewelry.

Vermeil pronounced ver may is gold. Gold plated jewelry however has a much thinner gold coating. The 1 20 means that 1 20th of the total weight or 5 is real gold. In some instances the weight of the gold is actually marked on the gold filled jewelry.

Gold filled jewelry may also be marked with fractional numbers around the karat quality mark. Solid gold jewelry in contrast is made entirely of one material usually an alloy that contains gold mixed with other metals to make the compound harder and more durable. There is no minimum thickness required for silver plated or gold plated articles. Standard purity marks used for vintage gold jewelry.

In that case it s either plated or filled gold or it s costume plain old jewelry not real gold. Gold filled items are similar to gold plated pieces in that they are not solid gold. In europe purity marks are commonly shown as percentages. Vintage gold jewelry with european purity marks.

See my other guide to find out more about the different kinds of gold plated jewelry including their markings. The 10k simply stands for 10 karat which is the purity of the gold plating. A piece may be identified as gold filled gold overlay rolled gold or with abbreviations of those terms such as gf for gold filled. The quality marks for gold plated indicate that an article has been electroplated with gold of at least 10 karats.

Sometimes the karat value is shown as a ratio such as 18 24 or 14 24 this is most commonly seen with gold filled jewelry as mentioned in the section above. Gold jewelry and other gold collectibles have always been prized for their beauty and the valuable metal they contain. There are about a dozen numbers in between from 10k or 417 to 23k or 950. Look for other hallmarks or stamps that indicate plated gold such as hge gold filled plate rgp ep or 1 10.

Looking at gold markings is one of the fastest ways to establish what your jewelry is made of. Gold can be all the way up to 24k 999 or 9999 which indicates about 99 percent pure gold. For example 1 10 14k g f means that the piece is gold filled and that 1 10 of its weight is 14 karat gold. Rae gf stands for gold filled which means that this piece is plated with gold and has some other metal underneath.

Because different types of manufacture use different amounts and qualities of gold in the creation of objects it is important to know how to verify solid gold gold plated and gold filled objects.