Silver or White Gold - What's the Difference? | Silver vs. Gold

All jewelry can look nice with proper lighting and a nice polish. In fact, without touching or weighing them, through an average person’s eye, a Silver might look like White Gold, and a Platinum might look like Silver. When you invest in something like fine jewelry, you might want to educate yourself on the different metal types, and how these metals will look 10, 20 years down the road. So let’s take a deep dive to find out which jewelry metal type suits you.

Sterling Silver

Sterling Silver is a mix of 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% of any other metal, usually copper. Pure silver is too soft and malleable for jewelry making, so the copper actually helps add hardness and strength to the silver and even reduces future tarnishing. However, Sterling Silver will eventually dull over time as it gets exposed to air and water, so this type of metal will require a lot more maintenance.

Sterling Silver is the most affordable and lightest amongst the metals, so this is a great choice for those looking for worry-free, everyday wear. Silver N Style offers Sterling Silver Rings, Sterling Silver Necklaces, and Sterling Silver Bracelets in a variety of unique and custom designs.

Our Sterling Silver Name Jewelry are Rhodium-plated which gives it a bright finish and adds more resistance to scratching. Rhodium is a rare and precious metal that’s harder than Silver or Gold. You’ll find that most of our Silver jewelry is plated with Pink (Rose) Rhodium, Yellow Rhodium, or White Rhodium.

Gold

Gold is a classic and timeless choice of metal. Like Silver, Gold in its purest form is very soft and malleable. You will know the purity of the gold in jewelry by its karat (not ‘carat’ which is used to describe the weight in diamonds). Gold is also mixed with other metals - like Silver, Copper, Palladium, Nickel - to add strength and color (pure gold is a deep yellow color). Based on how pure and what color you want your gold jewelry to be, you will have many options to choose from. Let’s take a look at the breakdown.

Gold Karat

  • 24K (100% pure gold) - while this is the purest form and the “best quality” of gold, you don’t want this for everyday wear as it will be get scratched and bent easily

  • 22K (91.6% gold, 8.4% other) - slightly stronger than 24K, but this is still less common due to its tendency to scratch and bend

  • 18K (75% gold, 25% other) - this is a more common choice and yields a deep yellow color due to the high contents of gold

  • 14K (58.5% gold, 41.5% other) - this is a popular choice for those looking for everyday use, as it is more durable than the 18K but still has excellent color

  • 10K (41.7% gold, 58.3% other) - this is a wallet-friendly choice and offers the most durability and resistance to scratches

Gold Color

  • Yellow Gold - Yellow is the natural gold color. Usually when Silver or Copper is added, the color livens up to a warmer, brighter yellow. This color is a classic and timeless choice.

  • Rose Gold - Rose Gold is achieved through a higher mix of Copper. This color is achieved naturally and does not need to be plated like Silver. Popularity for this color continues to rise amongst especially women and younger customers.

  • White Gold - White Gold results in a combination of Palladium and Silver, or Nickel, Copper, and Zinc. This color tends to be slightly more expensive than Yellow Gold, due to the higher demand and often need for Rhodium coating for durability and shine.

Silver N Style offers almost all of its custom gold jewelry in 14k Yellow, White, or Rose Gold and 10k Yellow or White Gold. You can shop the variety of choices and designs from our gold rings, gold necklaces, and gold earrings.

Silver N Style only offers authentic, fine jewelry. All of our gold jewelry is solid gold jewelry. However, you may come across different types of “gold jewelry” - and oftentimes cheaper because of the small amount of actual gold in the product - from mostly fashion or contemporary jewelry sites. Continue reading below to know the differences.

Gold Plated Jewelry

Gold plating, much like Rhodium plating, is the process of applying a layer of Gold on top of a Brass base through an electrochemical process. Brass is an alloy made of Copper and Zinc, and this metal is great as it resembles gold and does not rust. Essentially, the jewelry is “dipped” in gold during this process, and the layer would only compose 0.05% or less of the total weight. Eventually, once the gold layer wears off, the Brass base will be exposed.

Vermeil

Vermeil is similar to Gold Plated Jewelry, except that the base metal is Sterling Silver rather than Brass. It also holds a thicker level of gold plating, at least 2.5 microns thick. In the U.S., Vermeil jewelry must be coated with gold that is at least 10k pure. While this may cost more and last longer than gold plated jewelry, Vermeil is still susceptible to water, sweat, or perfume.

Gold Filled Jewelry

This is also not “real” gold jewelry but its popularity is growing over time. Gold filled jewelry is processed by taking 2-3 layers of solid gold and wrapping it around a brass core metal under intense heat and pressure. Gold-filled jewelry is legally required to have 5% of gold be weight. This is a better alternative to gold plated jewelry as it is less prone to tarnish and has more durability.

Now that you know a little more about Silver and Gold, what’s your #SNStyle?

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