March 14th, 2010 by Ida Jenkins

Many people view platinum and white gold as expensive lustrous white metals. If you purchase jewelery like wedding bands that are made from one of these substances then you would believe that misconception. Which is best? Let’s look at each one.

White gold - one of the most popular metals around these days when it comes to jewelry. However, white gold is not a natural substance. Pure gold is yellow and is far to soft to use as jewelry.

Pure gold is mixed with other metals to form a harder alloy that is then suitable for jewelry making. Pure gold is 24 carat and rarely used for jewelry. Once you create an alloy the purity drops so with gold, you end up with common alloys of 9 carat, 12 carat, 18 carat and 22 carat gold. When white gold is described as being 18 carat, it has 75% pure gold content.

A white gold alloy could contain quantities of silver, palladium, zinc, copper or nickel. It is the alloy created with nickel, zinc or palladium that produces white gold. When these metals are combined with gold they effectively bleach the yellow gold, white. Some metals have a stronger bleaching effect than others, however they also have stronger hardening effects.

White gold that is rated as 18 carat will have a yellow gold content of 75% with the remaining 25% any combination of metals - the more palladium the harder the finished alloy is. The resulting white gold looks very much like platinum, is long wearing like platinum, yet much cheaper than platinum. Cheaper versions of white gold are being produced these days and they range in color from dull grey through to a sickly yellow.

Platinum - platinum is rarer than gold so it is substantially more expensive. Platinum is a fairly hard metal and while it can be worked into rings in its pure state, can also be alloyed for easier use. As with most metals, platinum can be graded based on its purity. Platinum itself is actually a light grey, not white.

Platinum and white gold are both normally plated with rhodium to give them that famous white finish. Rhodium plating is not permanent and will wear away over time. White gold wedding bands will eventually turn a dirty light grey in color as the rhodium wears off. Your platinum jewelry will lose that brilliant white finish as the rhodium wears off.

Platinum is more expensive than white gold, however they may both look quite cheap over time because of that rhodium plating. You can restore the white lustre to your jewelry by having the rhodium plating reapplied. Which is best? It is in the eye of the beholder. Many don’t realize that white gold was created to imitate platinum. White gold is no longer considered a platinum substitute, it is popular in its own right. If you are looking for a platinum finish on a budget, be wary - you will get what you pay for. If you really want the platinum look - get platinum.

If you like white gold as white gold, then make sure the alloys used are silver and palladium and not other cheaper metals. I like white gold, not because it looks like platinum, but because it looks like white gold.

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