---

Have you ever stood at the jewelry counter wondering what it all means? There is karat weight, durability, craftsmanship and a whole passel of things to consider. Have you ever found yourself wondering why it is so complicated, and why someone can’t make buying a piece of gold jewelry a little easier to comprehend? Well, take a deep breath and read a little further, because things aren’t as complicated as they may seem.

Karat Weight

What is a karat weight, exactly? It’s simple, really. In ancient times, gold was weighed using the carob seed as a measurement. Today, that same concept is used to weigh the amount of pure gold used in creating a piece of jewelry. According to this scale, if a piece of jewelry contains 24 parts pure gold, then there are no alloys—it is pure gold.

Now that you understand jewelry-speak for pure gold, let’s examine the eight most commonly used karat weights in gold jewelry.

24 karat: pure /no alloy materials 22 karat: 22 parts pure / 2 parts alloy materials 20 karat: 20 parts pure / 4 parts alloy materials 18 karat: 18 parts pure / 6 parts alloy materials 14 karat: 14 parts pure / 10 parts alloy materials 12 karat: 12 parts pure / 12 parts alloy materials 10 karat: 10 parts pure / 14 parts alloy materials 9 karat: 9 parts pure / 15 parts alloy materials

When you are purchasing a piece of gold jewelry be sure to look for the karat weight stamp on the item. This is federal law in the United States, and it is the only way that you can be sure you are getting what you are paying for. These stamps most often have the karat weight measurement followed by a “K” for karat (e.g. 22K).

Once you understand karat weight as a measure of the purity of gold in a piece of jewelry, the rest is simply buyer beware issues. Gold is not a durable material; therefore, it makes good buying sense to get the pieces of jewelry that are thicker in the right places so that you can enjoy them for years to come. The “right places” simply means wear zones; for example, if you are buying a ring look for ones with a nice sturdy band and leave the delicacy to the top for show.

Now that you have some background on buying gold jewelry, there are no more reasons why stopping at the jewelry counter during Christmas, anniversaries, or birthdays should leave you cold. Go, armed with this information, and confidently pick her out the gold ring of her dreams.