Gold Filled: A piece of jewelry that is gold filled consists of 5% solid gold that is mechanically bonded to sterling silver. Gold fill jewelry has up to 100 times more gold that gold plated jewelry. Gold fill is a quality option that wont break the bank, but still offers a decent lifetime for the piece. It is more durable than plated jewelry and won't tarnish as badly.
Gold Plated: A piece of jewelry that is gold plated usually has less than .05% gold content and is the least expensive alternative. This means the piece is a base metal (like brass) and then using a process called electroplating, the base metal gets coated in a very thin layer of gold. Although this is the most cost effective option, the gold plating can be easily scratched or worn off, which is why we do not carry this type of jewelry in our store.
Solid Gold: Solid Gold jewelry is made entirely of gold - inside and out! There are various Karats of gold which is the percentage of 24k gold in the jewelry piece. The higher the karat number the higher the amount of gold. 24K is pure gold and is the most expensive.
