Look closely at a piece of gold jewellery, usually on the clasp or the inside of a band, and you will find a tiny stamp. Those marks are the honest truth about what you are holding. Learn to read them and you will never overpay for base metal dressed up as gold.
The solid gold stamps (purity)
On solid gold, the stamp tells you the purity, either as a karat number or as a three-digit "fineness" number out of 1000:
- 999 or 24K — pure gold. Soft, rarely used for everyday jewellery.
- 750 or 18K — 75% gold. The quality standard for fine jewellery, and what we use.
- 585 or 14K — about 58% gold. Common in mass-market pieces.
- 417 or 10K — about 42% gold. The lowest that can legally be called gold in many places.
If you see one of these numbers on its own, you are looking at solid gold, gold all the way through.
The "not solid gold" terms, from most gold to least
These look like gold on the surface but are mostly other metal underneath. From best to worst:
- Gold vermeil — a base of real sterling silver with a thick gold layer over it (by the US standard, at least 10K gold and 2.5 microns thick). Better than plating because the core is at least silver, but the gold content is small.
- Gold-filled (GF) — a genuine layer of gold pressure-bonded to a base metal, and by rule at least 1/20 (5%) of the total weight is gold. Marked like "1/20 14K GF". More durable than plating, but still mostly base metal.
- Gold plated (GP), electroplated (GEP), or HGE — a very thin gold layer over base metal, often a fraction of a micron. It looks identical at first, then wears through. Little to no resale value.
- Rolled gold (RGP) — another thin-layer method. Same story.
Two stamps people mix up
925 is not gold at all, it is sterling silver (92.5% silver). A "925" piece that looks gold is gold vermeil or plated silver. And a maker's mark or a country hallmark next to the purity number is normal; it just identifies the maker or assay office.
One number, like 750, means solid gold. Extra letters, like GF, GP or vermeil, mean mostly something else.
Why it changes the value
Only solid gold holds real, resellable value, because the whole piece is the metal. Vermeil, gold-filled, and plated pieces contain so little gold that they are worth almost nothing once you try to sell them, no matter how good they look on day one. When you buy for value, you want a clean purity stamp and nothing else.
Every Asil piece is solid, hallmarked 750 (18K) gold, and priced by the gram, so the stamp and the price tell the same honest story.