Which Is The Best Wedding Band: Platinum Or White Gold (Ida Jenkins)
Mar 11, 2010
Many people view platinum and white gold as expensive lustrous white metals. If you purchase jewelery like wedding bands that are made from one of these substances then you would believe that misconception. Which is best? Let's look at each one.
White gold - one of the most popular metals around these days when it comes to jewelry. Sorry to burst any balloons, but white gold is not a pure gold. Gold, in its purest form, is yellow and very soft - too soft to use in most jewelry pieces.
Pure gold is mixed with other metals to form a harder alloy that is then suitable for jewelry making. When measuring gold content, 24 carat equals 100% pure gold. Common alloys include 22 carat, 18 carat, 14 carat and 9 carat. As an example, white gold that has 50% gold content is 12 carat.
A white gold alloy could contain quantities of silver, palladium, zinc, copper or nickel. These metals also help to harden the white gold for jewelry use. By combining yellow gold with these metals the yellow color is bleached white, hence the formation of white gold. White gold is much harder than yellow gold because of this combination of metals.
White gold that is rated as 18 carat will have a yellow gold content of 75% with the remaining 25% any combination of metals - the more palladium the harder the finished alloy is. The resulting white gold looks very much like platinum, is long wearing like platinum, yet much cheaper than platinum. Cheaper versions of white gold are being produced these days and they range in color from dull grey through to a sickly yellow.
Platinum: this metal is much rarer than gold so it is far more expensive. Platinum is much harder than pure gold and often needs to be alloyed to soften it a little for jewelry making purposes. Platinum is actually a light grey color, not white and can be graded according to purity like most other metals.
Platinum and white gold are both normally plated with rhodium to give them that famous white finish. Rhodium plating is not permanent and will wear away over time. As the rhodium plating wears away the brilliant white finish that platinum and white gold are famous for will be replaced by a dull light grey appearance. Platinum jewelry will turn light grey over time as the rhodium plating wears away.
Although white gold is cheaper than platinum, they will both lose their rhodium plating and look rather cheap over time. You can restore the white lustre to your jewelry by having the rhodium plating reapplied. So which one is better for wedding bands? Many don't realize that white gold was created to imitate platinum. Of course, these days white gold is popular in its own right. White gold is now almost as expensive as platinum so if you are looking for a cheap version, white gold may not be the answer. For anyone looking for the platinum finish, I suggest buying platinum.
For those wanting white gold, be sure to buy white gold that is good quality, not created from a cheap alloy blend. I like white gold, not because it looks like platinum, but because it looks like white gold.
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