White Gold Wedding Bands
A popular option for wedding bands is white gold. It provides a more neutral color than gold, and matches with platinum or silver pieces. Its color enhances the appearance of gemstones.
What is White Gold?
White gold is gold that has been alloyed with another metal to change its hue. Traditionally this other metal was nickle but be careful ! - up to 15 percent of people develop an allergy to the nickle, so ask about the nickle content if you may be one of them. Nickel-containing white gold is banned in Europe. You might try the AllerTest Ni Nickel Detection Kit if you suspect a piece of jewelry.
Other Alloying Metals
The other common metals for making white gold are silver (most common) and palladium, both of which are precious metals and hypo-allergenic. White gold is not white as its name would imply, but a light gray color. It is usually plated with rhodium (yet another precious metal) to create the silver-white color expected. This plating is not completely wear proof, so be prepared to re-plate the wedding band every one or two years when the gray or yellow shows through. You might prefer to have the renewable plating wear than the gold! The rhodium plating creates a dazzling finish which is described as ‘whiter and more chrome than chrome’ Rhodium is twice as expensive as gold ($2500/oz!) , even after gold’s recent run-up, but only small amounts are used, so the cost of re-plating is reasonable. You can check the current prices of precious metals here.
Gold Content
Pure gold is called 24 carat, and is far too soft for use in jewelry. Most gold wedding bands are 18 carat, which is 18/24ths or 75% gold, with other metals for hardness. White gold typically has about 50% silver and 50% gold, which is about 14 carat gold. A ring in 18 carat gold and a ring in 14-carat white gold are roughly equivalent, and are priced about the same.
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