{"id":2662,"date":"2020-03-08T08:00:38","date_gmt":"2020-03-08T12:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/?p=2662"},"modified":"2020-03-08T12:04:42","modified_gmt":"2020-03-08T16:04:42","slug":"the-history-of-white-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/the-history-of-white-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"THE HISTORY OF WHITE GOLD"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/div>\n

Right off the bat, let’s get one thing straight: In nature, there is no white gold<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\nThere is gold, which is yellow (24k pure gold is real yellow<\/strong>), but there is no such thing as white gold.<\/p>\n

\nWhite gold is a man-made product<\/strong> created as a substitute for platinum<\/strong>. It’s a platinum look-a-like.<\/p>\n

Why produce it?<\/h2>\n

\nWhy create a look-a-like product when you can have the real thing?<\/p>\n

\nBecause platinum is one of the most rarest and one of the most durable metals on Earth. The Mohs Scale<\/a> (scale of hardness), as well as the Rockwell Hardness Test<\/a> (what metals are usually tested by), rates platinum as a 4-4.5 out of 10. While gold sits comfortably at 2.5-3<\/strong>. It doesn’t sound like much of a difference, but it really is.<\/p>\n

Platinum is rare<\/h2>\n

\nSo was white gold created because platinum is so rare?<\/p>\n

\nNo.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nEven though only about 40 ounces of platinum are mined each year, this was not the reason. The real reason white gold was created was because platinum had other uses.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nYou see, back in the days, platinum originally was used to make beautiful rings, bracelets and pendants (as far back as Egypt<\/strong>). Many platinum pieces were reserved for the rich and royalty since platinum cost so much. It was the cream of the crop<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\nWWII changed all that<\/strong>. The government wanted to utilize platinum’s durability and use it for their strategic purposes. It’s durableness would come in handy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\nSo they banned jewelers across America from using the metal, and the government stock piled the resources<\/strong>, using it for making batteries, cells, weapons, parts and chemical warfare.<\/p>\n

\nThis move paid off nicely. We won the war.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But jewelers scrambled…<\/h2>\n

\nThis left jewelers scrambling to come up with an alternative metal<\/strong> that looked like the wonderful platinum that so many people loved and wanted.<\/p>\n

\nThey learned that by mixing nickel, palladium or zinc to gold, would bleach the yellow hue enough and give the appearance of a white metal<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Hence, white gold was born.<\/h2>\n

\nTake a look at the difference between White gold and platinum in the image below…<\/p>\n

\n\"White<\/p>\n

\nThe main reason why white gold still exists today, even though platinum has made such a huge come back, is because it’s a much cheaper <\/strong>alternative to platinum. Platinum costs about 4 times the price of gold<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\nWhite gold sounds great, but sadly, there are no set standards for white gold in the jewelry industry. This leads to many variations, and multiple alloys in the mix<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\nYou can’t blame them either, white gold was only a substitute <\/strong>metal that was only going to be a temporary until platinum came back. Who knew it would stick around?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The contents of gold<\/h2>\n

\nNow-a-days, most manufacturers produce gold with a certain consistency<\/strong>, so it all looks and acts the same.<\/p>\n

\nThe main contents of 14k gold<\/strong> (yellow gold), are as follows:<\/p>\n