Q & A – Why has my white gold ring gone yellow / grey….

Why has my white gold ring gone yellow on the shank?

When gold is mined it comes out the ground yellow, and in order to make it white the jewellery industry uses a variety of different metals to alloy with it. Different companies will use different alloy mixes depending on whether their focus is price or quality, but all of these alloys will be treated with a rhodium plating to create a bright white finish.

In 18ct white gold 75% of the metal is yellow gold with 25% being allow metals such as palladium in stronger mixes and nickel in weaker variants, whilst in 9ct white gold 37.5% of the metal is yellow gold with the remaining 63.5% being made up of alloys like silver and nickel. Where nickel is used in the creation of the alloy the content is maintained at a level where it shouldn’t cause allergic reaction and the rhodium plating is hypoallergenic.

If your white gold jewellery has deteriorated and is showing a different colouring or is just looking a bit tired a simple clean, polish and re-rhodium will bring it back to life and have it almost looking like new again.

It’s not an expensive service and depending on how you wear your jewellery and what you do whilst you are wearing it should last a reasonably long time until you need to do it again.

In the picture (it’s not great) you can see my wedding with non rhodium plated bands next to one of my wife’s rhodium plated rings, both are 18ct palladium rich alloys the only difference is the finish.

I hope you have found this interesting, please feel free to ask any questions you may have, simply e-mail cnshop@charlesnobel.com