A Curated Online Jewelry Boutique

Interesting Facts About Gold Jewelry

While working on my new online jewelry boutique I realized how much there was to learn.  Not only about the intricacies of setting up and online jewelry boutique but about the materials themselves.  Different pieces have different characteristics and various jewelers work with various different mediums.  See our post about whats the difference between gold filled and gold plated.  There are hundreds of variations of natural stones and metals and these unique differences is what makes each piece special.  Researching further, I realized that there were some amazing facts about gold jewelry that I hadn't realized.  I began to put together a list of these and below is an infographic showing 10 facts about gold jewelry that I didn't know. 

10 Amazing Facts About Gold Jewelry

Rather not look at the pretty picture?  Just want the facts about gold jewelry straight?  No problem.  Here they are.

1. Pyrite which is extremely hot now for jewelry historically was referred to as fools gold.  It was called this because of its similarities to real gold.  Regardless we love it and you have to take a look at some of our pyrite jewelry pieces.

2. Over the last 100 years South Africa has been the largest supplier of gold in the world.  That's recently changed along with just about everything else and China is actually now the largest provider of gold in world. 

3. The largest gold nugget ever found was actually from Australia and weighed over 200lbs.  That's a lot of gold jewelry.

4. Karatage or Karat count is actually the measurement of how pure of gold an item or jewelry piece actually is.  Its measured in 24ths so a 24k piece of jewelry is actually 100% pure gold.

5. Pure gold is always gold and to make it other colors it is mixed with other metals to change it.  For example rose gold is actually gold with a hint of copper to provide that rose color to the metal.

6. Although nobody knows for sure the current estimates are that 80% of the worlds gold is still buried underground.  This is a great opportunity for you to go outside or to the beach and try digging for some gold jewelry.  There's plenty of it still underground.

7. Gold jewelry differs around the world as tastes and preferences differ but south asian gold jewelry is generally more pure than jewelry here in north and south America.  Jewelry in south Asia is generally 22 karat where western jewelry is closer to 14 karat.

8. Despite the popularity of platinum and silver, 75% of American brides actually received gold engagement bands with a diamond. 

9. Astronauts helmets actually have an extremely thin layer of gold on their visors to reduce glare and heat from sunlight.  So if you have any old astronaut helmets laying around maybe you could have it made into a pair of earrings.

10. Its said that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York holds more gold bullion then anyone else in the world with and estimated $147 billion worth of monetary gold.

Now that you are a little more educated on gold and you have had a chance to read through our facts about gold jewelry, its time to shop.  Come take a look at our jewelry.

Sources: ebay, Investing Answers, American Museum of Natural History