Gold pendants have been popular and trendy since the ancient civilizations such as the Roman Empire that focused much attention on the fine art of crafting jewelry. Gold pendants have always been thought to bring one power, societies of old believed that different symbols would bring one different powers such as the power of healing, wealth or luck.
When getting ready to purchase gold pendants or any other piece of gold jewelry, one should understand the basics of gold. Gold that is sold as jewelry is ranked by karat; the karat will tell you how much pure gold is in a piece of jewelry. Pure gold is 24 karats but is not the most popular to use when crafting jewelry because it is extremely soft and does not make for very durable jewelry. Most likely, gold pendants will be made out of 18, 14, 12 or 10 karat gold. As the number of karats goes down, so does the amount of pure gold. One important element to note is that many people who think that they are allergic to gold are in fact allergic to other metals that are added to the gold. For instance, a person who finds their skin becomes discolored may be experiencing a reaction to a piece of 12 karat gold in which there are a high amount of other metals. If they then purchased a piece of 18 karat gold, most likely the reaction would not happen.
Since 24 karat gold is pure gold and very soft, 18 karat gold would be the logical choice to purchase if one is looking for a very good gold piece, such as gold pendants. It will contain 18 parts of gold and 6 parts of one or more metals. This will make the piece 75% pure gold. 14 karat gold is considered fairly good quality gold; it will have 14 parts of gold and 10 parts of other metals; this will equal to exactly 58.3 percent of pure gold. Going any lower will bring the gold down significantly. 12 karat gold is only 50 percent pure gold and 10 karat gold is only 41.7 percent gold which obviously is less than half of pure gold and is the absolute lowest amount that can be blended into jewelry and still be called gold, at least in the United States.
Adding metals to gold is rather a must; pure gold is just too soft for most jewelry, including gold pendants. The colors that are added can also turn the color of gold into what we know as white gold and pink gold. Palladium or nickel creates white gold and copper creates pink gold. Gold plated jewelry is very popular, but keep in mind that it is simply a metal that is has a layer of gold on top and may eventually wear off.
