When buying jewelry, two words you hear often will be “carat” and “karat”. They sound alike, can even be spelled the same (depending on who is spelling!) but they mean very different things.
“Carat” is a unit of weight, used to measure the size of a gemstone. The larger the number, the larger the stone. Diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, opals, topazes and all other precious and semiprecious stones are measured in carats.
“Carat” – or in the modern jewelry trade to save confusion – “Karat” refers to the proportion of gold that is present in an alloy. It is a measure of purity. Gold is a relatively soft metal. Just a little bit of other metals make it strong enough to be durable. However, you can add quite a bit of other metals and it will still look like gold. Obviously, a ring, necklace or bracelet that has less gold in it is going to be less valuable.
Jewelers will stamp their jewelry with a number followed by a “K” to indicate how pure the gold used in their item is. The higher the number, the more pure the gold is in that item.
When looking for jewelry, consider the “carat” weights of the stones in the setting and the “karat” weight of the gold in that setting. Both of theses measurements will affect the market value of the jewelry.
If you are looking for jewelry, please visit Jewels On Hampton where our staff will visit with you and make sure all your questions are answered about “carat” versus “karat”.
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