Buying Sterling Silver Jewelry Without Being Ripped-OffWritten by Sam Serio
Buying sterling silver jewelry can be fun, exciting and confusing. Whether you’re considering a gift of sterling silver jewelry for someone special or as a treat for yourself, take some time to learn terms used in industry. Here’s some information to help you get best quality sterling silver jewelry for your money, whether you’re shopping in a traditional brick and mortar store or online.Sterling silver jewelry is enjoying an unprecedented popularity with today’s fashion conscious public. You know how beautiful sterling silver jewelry is and how brilliantly it shines. Now here is rest of story. Silver has been used since ancient times, but has not survived as well as ancient gold because it tarnishes and decomposes. There have been times, however, when silver was “in”; we are going through such a vogue today.
| | Buying Gold Jewelry Without Being Ripped-OffWritten by Sam Serio
Buying gold jewelry can be fun, exciting and confusing. Whether you’re considering a gift of gold jewelry for someone special or as a treat for yourself, take some time to learn terms used in industry. Here’s some information to help you get best quality gold jewelry for your money, whether you’re shopping in a traditional brick and mortar store or online.Gold The word gold, used by itself, means all gold or 24 karat (24K) gold. Because 24K gold is soft, it’s usually mixed with other metals to increase its hardness and durability. If a piece of jewelry is not 24 karat gold, karat quality should accompany any claim that item is gold. The karat quality marking tells you what proportion of gold is mixed with other metals. Fourteen karat (14K) jewelry contains 14 parts of gold, mixed in throughout with 10 parts of base metal. The higher karat rating, higher proportion of gold in piece of jewelry. Most jewelry is marked with its karat quality, although marking is not required by law. Near karat quality mark, you should see name of U.S. registered trademark of company that will stand behind mark. The trademark may be in form of a name, symbol or initials. If you don’t see a trademark accompanying a quality mark on a piece of jewelry, look for another piece. Solid gold refers to an item made of any karat gold, if inside of item is not hollow. The proportion of gold in piece of jewelry still is determined by karat mark.
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