Platinum vs. White Gold
Is There A Difference?
Often times when Platinum is thought of, it makes one think of their grandmother’s wedding ring or a metal that men would prefer. It is just usually not considered today, with the rising prices of precious metals being what they are. There are a number of reasons why you’d want to take platinum over white gold and several different reasons why you might prefer the white gold. Because it is much more difficult to work with than gold, there are far fewer jewelers in any given city that will craft custom platinum rings.
Platinum is more expensive. Not only is the metal more valuable, but it is more costly to use among many smaller retail jewelers. Platinum melts at higher temperatures than gold, making this one more reason that a jeweler prefers not to custom design in platinum. One recent development in China is the introduction of palladium jewelry which shares most of the properties of platinum, but is less expensive. Western markets, however, have not been swept up in the palladium trend and continue to be dominated by platinum and gold.
Platinum is much harder than gold. The more pure the gold is, the softer it is and 24 carat gold is very rarely used for any kind of jewelry other than broaches or medallions. If a ring is going to stand the test of time, it should be cast in at least a 10, 12 or 14K gold and even there it will wear away and grow thinner over time. Platinum, however, is much less resistant to erosion and will last literally for generations.
The hardness of platinum can be an illusion though, as it scratches less than gold, but is definitely not safe from ever being scratched. If a platinum ring gets scratched, the likeliness of that scratch remaining there permanently is a good one.
Because gold rings must be of a low carat, they contain a high percentage of other metals. White gold is still made out of pure gold which is always yellow, but it is mixed with white metals, so that it has a mostly white appearance. Platinum, however, has no yellow pigment at all, so it’ll be a purer white. While pure gold is non-reactive and hence hypoallergenic, white gold made with silver, nickel, or other metals may cause a reaction in people who are very sensitive to silver jewelry. Platinum is hypoallergenic like gold, but a platinum ring has no irritation-inducing impurities.
In order to make white gold look particularly white, it is often plated with rhodium, a very valuable metal in the platinum family. Rhodium is very hard and every bit as beautiful as platinum, but it is applied in the thinnest possible layer over the gold.
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