Rose Gold

What is Rose Gold?

With the internet (plus other forms of media) and its widespread scope of information dissemination, a good percentage of us may have encountered the term used by jewelers or jewelry owners for some type of gold jewelry called, “Rose gold”. If we take a look at the jewelry market, the name rose gold isn’t exactly pure in terms of the gold metal percentage that was used, but, it does adhere to our romantic side and a much more symbolic item.

When we talk about the metal itself, Gold (Au), the natural color it emanates would be a shade of yellow. Gold, in its purest form, won’t be able to hold long, since its categorized as a soft metal which means that it is malleable and ductile, and that is why to make use of this precious metal in making accessories, blacksmithing has made it into an alloy. This means that it is mixed with other metals to strengthen it and make it more durable.

The 24k gold, know to be pure gold, still actually holds a mix of a thousandth of copper and silver. A mixture that has worked throughout history because of the fact that they have a metallurgical affinity wherein their mix would complement each other making it a better alloy, more durable.

Rose gold is one type of mixture that involves these elements. But, in this mixture, the copper is the second most abundant element that is involved. Based on their metallurgical properties, when mixed, the copper introduces a reddish tinge to the gold which would coincide with historical accounts of romans processing gold wherein that they saw that gold was “red” in color.

There are different names to describe or rose gold is associated with all-over the world. In terms of color intensity people call it by the name of pink gold or red gold. Pink gold meant that the copper in that piece of jewelry had been in small amount only which cause a lighter shade of red. As jewelers add in more and more copper, the intensity of the red hue increases proportionately which caused the red gold association for many of the jewelry enthusiasts The purest form of rose gold that was ever made is also termed to crown gold which would be a 22k piece of rose gold jewelry. Historical accounts have also termed this alloy as Russian gold, an association because there was a time in Russia at around the 1800’s where there was a widespread use of this type of gold nationwide.

This is a very popular variation of the gold jewelries among collectors, gift-givers, among others. A rare commodity that can only be ordered in advance to give time for the maker to produce it. It still uses the common denominations of gold in terms of purity 22k, 18k, 14k, 10k, and 9k and as discussed would increase in the reddish hue intensity that it would be emanating. It’s only practical that one would decide on the color that he/she wants before making a purchase as not to dive into something that would be a regret in the future. After all, buying gold is quite expensive in whatever shade it is in.

References:

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/life_and_entertainment/2010/05/09/rose-gold-a-shade-higher-in-popularity.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colored_gold
http://www.quotegold.com/rose-gold.html

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