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18 ct white and yellow gold rings with coloured sapphires
18 ct white and yellow gold rings with coloured sapphires
Gold in jewellery is alloyed with other metals to increase its hardness and durability. The purity of gold in proportion to these other metals is measured in Carats (written as ct or K) with the purist gold being 24ct. All other gold are measured as a proportion of 24, so 9ct gold is 9 parts gold out of 24, whilst 18ct gold is 18 parts gold out of 24.
Rather confusingly, the word Carat is also used as the scale to measure the weight of a diamond. One carat is 0.2 grams of a diamond’s actual weight. Smaller diamonds are sometimes expressed as points rather than carats, and 100 points equals one carat. As larger diamonds are more rare than smaller ones, they are more expensive, so often a one carat solitaire ring is more expensive than one made up with several smaller diamonds, even if their combined weight equals more than one carat.
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