White gold or yellow gold what’s the difference? Why is white gold sometimes more expensive then yellow gold? Is white gold or yellow gold created by adding colors? There are so many questions about this subject we here at Baby Locket wanted to bring you some answers.

To answer the questions the most completely, we have to look at gold in its most natural state. Gold in its purest form, the moment it comes out of the ground, is yellow, this is pure 24K gold. That said, unless your jewelry incorporates a gold nugget into the design, next to no jewelry is pure 24K gold. Even in places like Asia or the Middle East where the jewelry tends to be higher in “karat” or “K” the gold is still not “pure” and will not be generally over 18K or 20K.

I’m not sure if anyone else remembers the “Hardness Scale of Minerals” from science class but let us just say that gold is very low on the scale. It is easily malleable and can bent and shaped into just about any shape which may sound good, the problem lies in that the gold won’t keep its shape. Could you imagine spending money on a beautiful locket just to have it squashed under your fingers or the locket simply drops off the chain when the clasp comes undone? Nightmare!!

Other metals are added to the gold to harden the gold and this is where the split between yellow gold and white gold occurs. Zink is added to the gold to keep the gold yellow but add hardness so jewelry will keep the gorgeous color and shape. Platinum and or Nickel is added to the gold to add hardness and to make white gold but that’s not all. Pink gold can be created with the addition of copper and even Zink if you are looking for a greenish tint.

Because Platinum is added to to yellow gold to make the gold white it can be more expensive.  It really comes down to how much Platinum is added that determines how much more expensive that it may be.

There is much more to the difference between white gold and yellow gold but this is just a small explanation. To find out more differences between yellow gold and white gold, we came across these two articles, the first on Wikipedia about white gold and this other article from The Straight Dope.

Let Baby Locket be your one stop resource for all things baby lockets and be sure to check out our main page if you looking to buy white gold baby lockets or buy yellow gold baby lockets!