Platinum jewelry has become more popular of the recent years and is often preferred over white gold although it is almost twice as expensive. In fact, a platinum ring is likely to set you back twice as much as the value of a 18 karat gold ring (excluding any gems)

Despite this, platinum is an excellent metal for jewelry due to its hardness and bright shine and really does set diamonds and other gems off to their very best effect.

As platinum is so expensive, when purchasing platinum jewelry always ensure you get a proper 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

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 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 exactly what you are looking for.

In part 3 we look in more detail about how to select a genuine platinum wedding band and how to ensure you are getting the real thing.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 26th, 2006 at 1:58 pm.