When looking for charms, there are many different types of gold to choose from. The most common is yellow, but there is also white, green, blue, purple, and red. Because pure gold is very soft, when manufacturing jewelry it is almost always combined with other metals.
The most common ally is copper, which results in a slightly reddish color, also known as rose. Adding iron will produce a blue color, and adding aluminum will result in purple. To create white gold, palladium or nickel are added.
Pure gold is known as 24k .After base metals have been added, gold is labeled 22k, 18k, 14k or 10k. 22k means the item is 91.6% pure, while 18k means the piece has 18 parts gold and six parts of another metal. In other words the item is 75% pure. 14k means that the item is 58.5% pure with 14 parts gold and 10 parts of another metal, and 10k means that the item is 41.7% pure.
KP stands for Karat Plumb, which tells you the least amount of gold in the piece (for example 14KP means that it contains at least 14k gold; it could be more, but not less)
If you are looking for a less expensive option, check out plated charms. Markings on plated items include:
G.P. means gold plated
G.E. is gold electroplated
R.G.P. means rolled gold plate (i.e. gold alloy over a base metal)
H.G.E. meaning heavy or hard gold electroplated (same thing as above but using an electrical process)
G.F. stands for gold filled and is similar to gold plate (but G.F. contains more gold)
E.P.N.S. means electroplated nickel silver
G.S. means gold shell
Vermeil, which is gold plated silver
Remember that there are many different options available for gold charms. The best places to buy is still at local retailers or jewelry stores and also at trusted online jewelry stores and retailers. If you are looking for a particular charm for that special someone, it is sure to be out there somewhere, you just have to keep looking. Again, do not forget that the more karats that are in the charm you are looking at, the more expensive it will be. But quality also means that it will last much longer and look nicer for many years to come.
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