You are set to buy for yourself some wedding jewelry and have kind of jotted on designs, budget, diamond/gemstones, jewelry settings, etc. But the final countdown is as to in which metal would you want it to be made of and designed. The two Most Popular Jewelry Metals these days is gold and platinum.
Gold is a very well favored choice among people of tradition on its association with Gods in various culture, its auspiciousness, and wide appeal. Platinum jewelry, on the other hand, is better suited for highly pristine and stylish/contemporary Jewelry Buyers and is thus called as the new age metal.
Even the yellow gold has its various variants used for jewelry making in the form of white and rose gold. White Gold is actually malleable gold mixed with various alloys like copper, aluminum, silver, palladium, etc. and given a rhodium coating to give a silvery-white metallic shine and luminance.
Following is a summary of main points in a Comparison Between Platinum and White Gold Jewelry:
- Looks: The appearance of Platinum jewelry is naturally white in the form of silvery or greyish hue while White Gold Jewelry is essentially artificial white with a tint of the yellowish hue.
- Wear and Tear: The wear and tear aspect for a white gold jewelry is more than a platinum jewelry by reason of it having rhodium coat subject to fade and wither away. The white gold plating in a jewelry, over the long years of use, tends to get off its polish of rhodium plating so the necessity for re-plating is warranted on a regular basis. Also, as the plating gets to leave off the metal, a shallow yellow hue of the original gold metal tends to get surfaced to give a yellowish color. On the other hand, Platinum Wedding Jewelry never fades in its shine and finish, only to give a worn out greyish look in the long run of incessant scratch and use.
- Maintenance: The need for maintenance and upkeep of white gold jewelry is more than platinum jewelry, as its re-plating is to be done, once yellow shade of the original gold jewelry gets surfaced in the outer layer. This is not the case for platinum jewelry as platinum jewelry does not contain any rhodium coat to wear off in the long run. Further, platinum jewelry can only be professionally shined over intermittent gaps of time when some dullness appears to its natural patina, at a very low expense.
- Density and Durability: Platinum is more dense and heavy in weight aspects and is thus comparatively not so lightweight for ease of daily wearing. While a white gold ring is comparatively very less in average weight ratio and thus has the ease of wear-ability.
And in terms of durability, Platinum Jewelry is very robust to run in the long run, very strong and sturdy. As white gold jewelry is made up of not only gold, which as it is itself is a very soft and brittle metal, in comparison to platinum, white gold jewelry is not so sturdy and strong. We can even find instances of some gold jewelry breaking loose its nooks and corners, but not platinum jewelry.
- Cost: Platinum as a Metal is more rare and scarce than gold, as only 160 tons of platinum is mined annually, in contrast to 1500 tons of gold and thus on the price aspect, platinum jewelry is expensive. A platinum jewelry offering contains 95% pure metal of platinum only, whereas the white gold jewelry contains the majority of white gold and other numerous compositions of silver, copper, etc. and the lesser percentage of pure gold value and thus is expensive. For instance, a 14 karat gold jewelry is only 58.5% of gold content and the rest metal content being of any alloy like copper, aluminum etc.
- Allergy: As some white gold jewelry is mixed with nickel, palladium, copper, zinc etc. the addition of this component of nickel can cause some kind of allergy to the jewelry wearer in contrast to platinum jewelry a sits 95% pure, devoid of any coating.
- Scratch Proof: When comparing a platinum jewelry with a 14 karat gold jewelry, we can find that the Platinum Metal in the Jewelry gets scratched easier to develop a patina finish, a look of worn out appearance only in the long run in contrast to a gold jewelry as when it gets scratched, it loses its outer coat of gold finish, to appear diminished of shine and luster.
