White gold quality pearl jewelry can look absolutely splendid when the setting and design are right. However, most cultured pearls do not have a certificate especially when set in jewelry so one needs to have some understanding and familiarity with pearls to ensure that the quality is acceptable.

White gold is gold that has been mixed with a silver colored alloy such as silver, zinc and nickel, although nickel is not used so much now due to the allergic reactions of some people. A 14K white gold ring will still contain as much gold as a yellow 14k gold ring but the copper will have be reduced and replaced with silver and zinc. Also white gold still has a yellowish tinge about it so is usually coated in Rhodium, a white hard shiny metal, to protect it and increase it’s durability.

One of the disadvantages of white gold is that over time the rhodium will wear away giving and showing up the yellowish gold underneath. This gives the piece a splotchy yellow appearance. The only solution to this is to have it recoated in rhodium. However the cost of this can out weight the value of the piece itself unless it has an important value to a person.

However, white gold does look very nice with a good quality cultured pearl. It pays to get some familiarity with pearls, especially cultured pearls, and to know what a quality pearl looks and feels like.

There is a heap of information on this website that covers this.

Buying white gold quality pearl jewelry can be a fun experience provided some common sense and due diligence is used.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 11th, 2007 at 11:14 am.