Gold Filled VS Gold Plated

When it comes to the difference between gold filled and gold plated, many people may confuse them. Which one you should buy? What’s gold-filled? What does gold plated mean? How to distinguish them？Today, we will show you some tips to help you.

There are so many kinds of Gold products in the market. Sometimes, we are in trouble in checking and choosing as they have a very similar appearance. The most common items we met often are gold filled & gold plated. Let’s start with them.

What’s gold filled?

gold filled means a thin layer of Gold was covered on the surface of a based metal, and it requires at least 5% pure gold by weight. It’s a strictly regulated process that involves pressure bonding multiple layers of solid 14Kt gold with extreme heat over a core of high quality jeweler’s brass resulting in a durable, quality real gold product.

What does gold plated means?

Gold Plating is a method of covering another type of metal with a very thin film of pure gold by electroplating it. There is usually around 0.5 - 6 microns of gold on plated jewelry...that's 0.00023622 of an inch!

Gold Filled Vs. Gold Plated

Gold-filled jewelry is a much more valuable, much thicker layer of gold on the surface and much higher quality Gold than gold-plated. Moreover. The Gold-filled jewelry has no risk of tarnishing and allergy.

How to Find Out if an Item is Plated or Filled?

It is not easy for most people to distinguish. Some people will rely on stamps, markers, and other identifiers on the gold item, something that the US Department of Commerce requires; but there are too many gold products made around the world. The US Department of Commerce only can restrict those products made in the US. So it is not a good way to follow.

There are two fool proofs ways to test an item to ensure if an Item is Plated or Filled, but both require you to see a professional.

The first is to have the piece electronically tested with a device that can tell you how thick the gold is on a piece of jewelry.

The traditional way of testing for gold is to do an acid test. With this test, a small amount of acid will be put on the jewelry and will indicate gold plating as it will dissolve the plating right off. Then you will definitely know what type of jewelry you have.

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