A 24 carat gold item is regarded to be pure gold. A carat rating below this indicates how much gold is in the jewelry piece and how much is alloy. Gold is very soft and, much as is the case with sterling silver, gold is mixed with a variety of metals to decrease its soft quality and increase its durability. The alloys used will depend, in part, on the desired final color and hardness of the gold. Yellow gold is frequently a mixture of gold, copper, zinc and silver.
White gold is a typically a mixture of gold, silver, zinc, palladium and other metals.
Our web store uses carat as the descriptor for the proportion of gold in the gold rings and other jewelry that we sell.