What are "precious metals"?

Precious metals are rare materials that posses outstanding characteristics suitable for creating gorgeous LaBrilliante jewelry. Only eight metals bear precious tag, such as: silver, gold and six metals from the platinum group.

Precious metals are used in jewelry production due to their inability to rust or corrode, which means they can last for a very long time, there are jewelry pieces which from ancient Egypt that are still shining as if they were just made.

Let's look a little more detailed into each of the precious metals mentioned!

Gold

Gold is one of the most desired metals people tend to seek for jewelry purposes known since long before the beginning of recorded history. It’s obvious why, it doesn’t corrode, it's flexible which allows to design the jewelry pieces with ease and last but not least, the color is very attractive. Important to mention that pure gold is too soft for most jewelry and would bend easily even without heating, It’s therefore commonly mixed with silver or copper for a more sturdy alloy. Term Karat (“k” or “kt”) to describe the percentage of pure gold in the alloy, so don't confuse with "carat" weight which is used to measure diamonds.)

Purities of gold

24 Karat gold: 99.9% Purity

22 Karat gold: 91.7% Purity

18 Karat gold: 75% Purity

14 Karat gold: 58.3% Purity

Silver

No matter how popular the gold may be, people will never get tired of silver jewelry. The same as gold, silver was popular for thousands of years due to its rarity, flexibility and long lasting abilities. But again same as gold, pure silver is soft in and must be alloyed with other metals (commonly copper is used) to prevent distortion.

Unlike gold, silver is not rated by karats. Instead, jewelers use the terms “fine” and “sterling” to refer to very pure silver, although fine silver is less commonly used for jewelry-making.

Purities of silver

800 silver — Silver contains 80% of pure silver and 20% of copper (or other metal)

925 sterling silver — Sterling silver contains at least 92.2% of pure silver and not more than 7.6 percent of copper or any other metal (universal standard)

950 sterling silver — 950 silver contains at least 95% of pure silver

Fine silver — Fine silver contains 99.9% of pure silver and that makes it too soft to be used for jewelry purposes.

Platinum

Is a rare (It’s about 30 times rarer than gold) and pricy material, much more expensive than gold or silver. The six metals in the platinum group are the finest metals among other precious metals.

Platinum is the most durable and scratch-resistant of the fine metals, but its scarcity makes it an uncommon material for jewelry-making. Most jewelry artisans prefer gold and silver as raw materials because they can make a greater range and volume of pieces.

Precious Metal Options