mark: hi, it’s mark bossert of top locallead generation and we’re here with sheetal gupta of maharani jewels in vancouver. sheetalis the diamond lady. how’re you doing today sheetal? sheetal: i’m doing really well thank youso much mark. mark: so we’re going to talk about somethingother than diamonds for once, and the difference between gold and platinum. what’s the difference? sheetal: yeah, so gold and platinum are bothdifferent elements that are used to make engagement rings in particular. they are used in allsorts of jewellery, but today i wanted to focus a little bit more on gold and platinumused in engagement rings. so there’s pros
and cons definitely to both metals. from thelast several thousand of years, gold was definitely used predominantly in jewelry and so it’sdefinitely the most common form of metal used in jewelry. but i would say int he early 1900’s,we start to see a little bit more use of platinum. it was a new metal, it was pure white andit was a nice change from the traditional yellow colour of gold. in engagement ringsin particular, i get asked very frequently, what would i recommend? do i recommend goldsuch as 14 karat or 18 karat or do i recommend platinum. and i always like to say that ofcourse there are pros and cons to both and i’m happy to provide my recommendations,but everyone has their own preferences. so some people may still prefer to chose platinumand some people will still stick with gold.
in terms of gold, gold is in its pure format 24 karat but because it’s extremely soft at 24 karat, gold is used in 14 karat and18 karat as well as 19 karat, which i will talk a little more about in rings. so 14 karatmeans that 14 parts out of the 24 are gold and the rest of the 10 parts are other alloys.so the 14 parts translates to roughly 58% which is gold and the rest being other alloys.in 18 karat, 75% is gold whereas the rest of the 25% are other alloys, 19 karat is ametal which i’ve started to use very frequently. it is one of my favourite metals to use. it’sgot 18 karat, which is gold, which is 75% gold as well as 1% of palladium. palladiumis a platinum family of metals. and then the balance 5% are other alloys.
platinum is 95% pure and the other 5% areother alloys that are combined to make it 100%. platinum is strong, it’s durable,it also has this one characteristic which prevents the metal from changing colour. soplatinum by nature is white. so when clients are looking for a white metal in their engagementrings, the platinum will stay white forever. however, it’s not resistant to scratches,it is also quite heavy in comparison to gold. so when you compare two rings, such as a 14karat vs platinum and how it wears over time, you’ll see more scratches on the platinumring. you’ll notice over time with the scratches, it starts to look like a patina finish ora matte finish, almost like the way silver looks over time, so a little bit more dull.and in order to be able to give it that fresh,
polished look again it needs to be taken into a jeweller and polished which does cost money. so that’s definitely an investmentto consider when you are considering platinum. with 14 karat, what happens is is becausethe true colour of gold is yellow, gold that is 14 karat or 18 karat has a tendency toturn yellowish with time with exposure to the environment, with exposure to lotionsand perfumes. so when you purchase a 14 karat or 18 karat ring, it’ll look just as whiteas a platinum but over time it just starts to look a little bit warm and it just startsto take on a little bit of warmth. and again, it is reversible. it can be made back intothat bright white colour but then it needs to be rhodium plated. rhodium is a metal thatis added into the 14 and 18 karat to help
it look whiter. so essentially the propertiesof gold are yellow in colour. so to make it white we add things like nickel or rhodium.so to have it again reversed back into that white metal when it’s turned yellowish,we can have it rhodium plated. again, that’s a little bit of an investment, it does costmoney to do it every single time which is why it brings me to 19 karat. 19 karat is, with that 1% extra of palladium,actually prevents the metal from turning yellowish the way that 14 or 18 karat will. so it hasthe best of kind of both worlds where you’ve got the beautiful white metal and it does’tscratch as much as platinum. that’s the other benefit of gold. it doesn’t scratchas much as platinum will, so it stays more
shiny and more bright overall. and i thinksome of the other differences would be just in the wear and tear. so obviously, platinumand gold have an excellent wear and tear but with the platinum, you’re going to see alittle bit more scratches and that dull sort of finish over time. cost wise, when usingplatinum because we’re using 95% of it, even though the value per gram is equal ingold and platinum because it’s dense and we’re using a higher percentage of it, itends up costing more. things like resizing end up costing more. so overall, it’s abit more of an investment when you are dealing with platinum but if you are absolutely afan of the fact that it is platinum, it’s a noble rare metal then of course platinumis a great choice. but i find that if you
are looking for a little bit more of thatlongevity, if you’re looking to spend a little bit less and be able to maintain yourrings a little bit better, i find that 19 karat to be a fantastic choice. mark: so if you are looking for honesty, integrityand incredible knowledge in your jeweller, give sheetal a call. you must book your appointmentahead of time 604-727-0149 or go to her excellent website maharani jewels.comthanks sheetal sheetal: thanks so much mark
