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White gold question

Can someone explain why my 18k white gold wedding ring has to be occasionally rhodium dipped to re-plate it when it turns yellow, when my grandmother's white gold ring is still white? Has the process of making white gold changed over the years? If so, why?

Shanali Vaught
- Westminster, California, USA
2002

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2002

White gold is an alloy of regular old yellow gold plus some "white" metals that lighten it up. Because it's still not white enough for people's taste, it is rhodium plated. In your grandmother's day Rhodium was less expensive than gold and there was little incentive to skimp on the plating. These days Rhodium prices are very volatile and vary from 3 to 50 times as expensive as gold, so the thickness of the plating which the jeweler applies is inadequate (probably a few MILLIONTHS of an inch).

A second possibility, the expression of which always gets me labeled as a moron around here, is that your grandmother's ring is not white gold, but platinum. I know that nobody believes me, but our grandmothers did not all spend their lives is assay labs or testifying before the FTC, and some did call their platinum rings "white gold" even though it's not right. But if your grandmother's ring is brilliant bright, like yours, it's rhodium plated.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey