How to Care For Your Gold Jewelry

by: Alice Stacy


As a precious metal, gold represents less work to maintain its appearance than other metals, such as silver. Gold does not tarnish, smudge, or discolor, but it can become dulled by contact with soaps, perspiration, hand creams and other substances from your daily life.

A good rule of thumb, is to wash your hands before putting on, or taking off, gold jewelry. This prevents contamination with natural body oils and other matter that your hands have touched. Also, if you're going to be wearing perfume, creams, lotions or other chemical substances, put them on before your jewelry. Gold items will be dulled and dirty from lying on skin that is still moist with make-up, or if they are in the line of fire from hairspray.

Always be sure to remove your rings before immersing your hands in the dishwater or laundry. Repeated exposure to harsh chemicals like chlorine, can permanently damage the gold's luster. That also means removing rings when using swimming pools.

Store gold jewelry that you aren't wearing, in their original boxes, or clean, cloth bags in a drawer away from other jewelry. Never leave pieces jumbled together in a box, as they can scratch each other, particularly if they happen to be set with hard gemstones. Even wrapping each piece in plain tissue paper, will preserve the surface and the shine.

The gold portions of jewelry can be cleaned with a mild soap solution and a soft cloth for polishing. A used, soft-bristled toothbrush may be helpful in reaching small crevices such as the links of a chain, or the underside of settings in a ring.

Buying Gold: Things To Look Out For...

by: Christine Loxley



The first rule when you are buying any type of gold jewelry is a simple one: make sure that the gold is hallmarked. Gold is stamped according to how pure it is as you can have 24K,22K,18K,14K,10K, and 9K.

There are some instances where the hallmark comes in the form of a fraction to show the exact percentage of its purity. When looking into gold jewelry you need to look if there are the letters GP or EP anywhere on the piece of jewelry. GP stands for gold that is not pure gold but gold-plated. This is important because a piece of jewelry that you think is inexpensive can carry this insignia and it basically means that there is not much actual gold on the piece. EP means that the gold is electro-plated.

If you run into someone selling gold where there is no marking on the gold at all assume the worst that it is goldtone which is not gold in any way but a metal which is golden in color. If the price of a gold piece of jewelry is too good to be true it probably is. There are many types of gold available at different prices just be aware of the different worth of each type of gold and then see if it is a good deal or not.

You can not judge gold by its color. Even though with gold with a higher level of purity it will be brighter in color than a lower level purity gold. If you are looking into buying gold jewelry which is older if it is solid gold it should still not tarnish. If the piece is made from goldtone or is gold plated than it generally will show some sign of tarnishing.

These are some little things to know about gold, but considering gold and gold jewelry can be expensive it can be wise to have a professional jeweler or metals expert look at a piece you will be buying to see if it is the read deal or just fool’s gold.