Gold & Platinum
Gold has always fascinated humans. Its special color and luster have exerted a unique attraction for thousands of years.
Even before the Egyptians built their pyramids, gold was used for jewelry.
Perhaps even more than gold, platinum is the ideal material for making jewelry. It is one of the strongest materials in the world, is very durable and has a very beautiful luster.
Gold
Gold has captured man's imagination since its discovery. It is one of the rarest metals on earth. Thanks to its special luster and total resistance to rust, it has been used for jewelry since the dawn of civilization.
Pure gold is a very soft metal. One gram of gold can be crushed into a sheet with an area of one square meter. To make gold useful for jewelry, it must first be made hard. This is done by making an alloy with another metal such as silver, copper, or palladium. The metals used to do this also determine the color of the gold. The most common colors in jewelry are yellow, white and pink.
Unworked white gold has a slight yellowish appearance. Therefore, jewelry made of white gold is coated with rhodium, a very hard metal with a shiny, white color.
The purity level of gold is indicated in carats (not to be confused with carats in gemstones). 24 carats is pure gold, 22 carats is 91.6% pure, 18 carats is 75% pure and 14 carats has a gold content of 58.5%. 18 Carat is by far the most suitable for jewelry. That is why at Van der Veken Jewelers we only use 18 carat gold.
Platinum
Platinum is the purest precious metal in the world. Platinum is naturally enormously strong and has a beautiful, pure white color. This makes it ideal for making jewelry.
Platinum is very rare. To mine 1 ounce (31.1 grams) of platinum, an average of 10 tons of ore must be mined. Therefore, it is the most valuable precious metal in the world.
Thanks to its hardness, platinum wears out very hard. This makes it one of the most durable materials available. Therefore, a platinum jewel will scratch much less than gold through use.
Because of this durability, platinum, like diamonds, symbolizes imperishability. Therefore, it is a very popular choice in engagement rings.
