Letter 9403

Test to determine if band is white gold or yellow gold plated with rhodium 

Ed. note; This is an interesting but long thread, and only one of many. Before you get too confused, you might want to start with our FAQ on Rhodium Plating and White Gold to get an overall understanding :-)

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I read all of the postings and am now quite concerned about the wedding band I recently purchased. Does anyone know of a way to test if the ring is really white-gold or yellow gold just plated with rhodium.

Michael Krassos
- Miami, FL, USA

Why not just ask the jeweler from whom you purchased the ring? The gold content of a 14K gold ring is exactly the same regardless of color, white or yellow, so there is no economic reason to rhodium plate yellow gold. If you are still suspicious you can use emery paper to sand away rhodium plate and see what is underneath.

Neil Bell
Red Sky Plating - Albuquerque, NM, USA

Use Pen Gold Tester . Testing makes green rhodium ink, turns white solid nickel/gold surface to pure gold, and platinum/gold forms a yellow-red ink.

Andy Reiss
- NY, NY, USA

There is NO SUCH THING AS WHITE GOLD! It is ALL rhodium plated!

Tai Wade
- Lo Angeles, CA

Sorry, Tai. But you are 90 percent in error. Although most white gold these days is indeed rhodium plated to make it shinier and whiter, white gold is an alloy of gold and nickel or gold and palladium that is definitely quite whitish.

As the rhodium wears thin on a white gold piece it is just barely noticeable; but as the rhodium wears off of a yellow gold piece it is very obvious because of the stark contrast. That is why it was never considered acceptable to rhodium plate yellow gold, although it seems that some jewelers are doing it today instead of stocking the pattern in both white and yellow.

Ted Mooney, P.E.  finishing.com Brick, New Jersey

Hi Michael

I have two methods for you to try

Both use the specific gravity test to determine the gold content of your ring, one is a formula, the other is a chart.

Method 1

Step:

1) Weigh your ring eg: 10.00 grams

2) Place a beaker half filled with water on a scale. The scale will have to be re-zeroed with the beaker & water on it. If it does not have this feature try turning the scale off then on with the beaker & water on it. See your local butcher if you cant get hold of a scale.

3) Attach a fine thread or hair to the ring and submerse it in the water. NB it must be fully submerged but suspended "not touching the sides or bottom". Take the reading off the scale eg: 0.56 grams

4) Divide the dry weight of the gold by the suspended one eg: 10.00 \ 0.56 = 17.8

5) Multiply the result by 5.096 eg: 17.8 x 5.096 = 90.7088 percent gold.

Method 2: using the result from step 4 match it to the row titled weight. The value adjacent will be the percentage of gold present.

eg 17.8 92% "close enough to the previous test!"

Weight		%
11.37		45
11.53		47.5
11.64		50
11.8		51
11.91		52
12.02		53
12.12		54
12.42		57
12.52		58
12.6		59
12.69		60
12.8		61
12.93		62
13.06		63
13.19		64
13.31		65
13.46		66
13.61		67
13.77		68
13.92		69
14.07		70
14.22		71
14.39		72
14.52		73
14.68		74
14.83		75
15.06		76
15.29		77
15.53		78
15.76		79
16		80
16.15		81
16.3		82
14.45		83
16.6		84
16.75		85
16.9		86
17.05		87
17.2		88
17.35		89
17.5		90
17.65		91
17.8		92
17.95		93
18.1		94
18.25		95
18.46		96
18.67		97
18.89		98
19.1		99
19.3		100
 

Regards

Scott

Scott, Alexander
- Harare, Zimbabwe

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