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There is a popular misconception that platinum and white gold are both lustrous cold white metals. If you purchase jewellery like wedding bands that are made from one of these substances then you would believe that misconception. Which is best? Let's look at each one.

White gold - one of the most popular metals around these days when it comes to jewelry. White gold does not, in reality, exist. Gold, in its purest form, is yellow and very soft - too soft to use in most jewelry pieces.

For jewelry purposes, yellow gold is mixed, or alloyed with other metals. Pure gold is 24 carat and rarely used for jewelry. Once you create an alloy the purity drops so with gold, you end up with common alloys of 9 carat, 12 carat, 18 carat and 22 carat gold. Twelve carat, for example, is 50% gold with the remainder a range of metals.

Metals used to create jewelry grade gold include copper, nickel, silver, zinc, and palladium. It is the alloy created with nickel, zinc or palladium that produces white gold. When these metals are combined with gold they effectively bleach the gold white. Some metals have a stronger bleaching effect than others, however they also have stronger hardening effects.

A ring may contain 75% gold, 4% silver, 4% copper and 17% palladium. This would result in an 18 carat white gold that is hard wearing and yet looks very much like platinum. Cheaper versions of white gold are being produced these days and they range in color from dull grey through to a sickly yellow.

Platinum - platinum is rarer than gold so it is substantially more expensive. It is also much harder than gold and can be worked in to jewelry such as wedding bands without adding other metals. Like white gold, platinum has various grades of purity and is actually a light grey in color - not white.

To create that brilliant white finish, platinum and white gold are both plated with rhodium. Over time, this rhodium plating will wear away leaving the base metal behind. If you white gold wedding ring is one of the cheaper alloys, then that brilliant white will become a faded looking yellow. Your platinum wedding ring will have a very light grey to off white look about it.

White gold is less expensive than platinum, however, you will not know how it will look in years to come due that rhodium plating. The one saving grace is that wedding rings can be re-plated if required.

Which is best? It is in the eye of the beholder. White gold was created to imitate platinum. It has however developed it's own following. If you are looking for a platinum finish on a budget, be wary - you will get what you pay for. If you really want the platinum look - get platinum.

If you like white gold as white gold, then make sure the alloys used are silver and palladium and not other cheaper metals. Palladium by the way is also more expensive than gold. That is why cheap alloys use cheap replacements. I like white gold, not because it looks like platinum, but because it looks like white gold.

Learn more about this author, Les Scammell.
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