Platinum and platinum jewelry has become more common over recent years and is often preferred over white gold although it is almost twice as expensive

Platinum is a very dense white metal, harder than gold in its pure form and makes an ideal metal for jewelry. Whereas white gold is an alloy of various metals and can eventually wear away, platinum is long lasting and long wearing. It is, as I said, almost twice as expensive as pure gold and over twice as expensive as say, 14 karat gold.

In fact, a platinum ring will probably set you back twice the price of a 18 karat gold ring (not including any gems. Nevertheless platinum is an excellent metal for jewelry due to its hardness and bright shiny surface and it really does set diamonds and other gems off to their best effect.

When purchasing platinum jewelry it always pays to ensure you get a guarantee that it is platinum and not white gold you are purchasing. You do not want to discover the error, intentional or otherwise, if the time comes when you want to sell it and found out the value is far less than you knew.

Platinum has hallmarks and the US Federal Trade Commission, FTC, publishes some guidelines for acceptable marking standards for platinum jewelry sold in the US.

Platinum content is invariably expressed as the amount of pure platinum the jewelry contains in parts per thousand. So if it is stated that the platinum content is 950/100 or 950 parts per thousand of pure platinum then it may be marked or described as “Platinum”

However, jewelry that contains only 850 or 900 parts per thousand of pure platinum, for example, it should be marked “Plat” or “Pt” if a number is used in front of the term to disclose the amount of pure platinum in the mix, such as “850 Plat” or “850 Pt”, or “950 Plat” or “950 Pt”.

The FTC is currently considering a request to allow manufacturers to mark jewelry as platinum even if it contains metals that are not part of the platinum group so make sure you ask your jeweler to explain platinum content and markings if you are not sure which combination is the most suitable for your jewelry purchase.

Keep the above in mind when you go shopping for platinum jewelry and you will know what you are buying and how much it is worth and will enjoy many happy years of owning platinum jewelry.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 26th, 2006 at 5:39 pm.