What is gold karat?

When people buy gold jewelry in the store, the seller often describes it in terms of karats (abbreviated kt or K). The gold jewelries are made with different karat, such as 10 karat, 12 karat, 14 karat, and 18 karat. High karat gold jewelries are more expensive. Well, what exactly does the "karat" mean?

What is the karat?

Karat is a unit of purity for gold alloys, rather than weight. The word "karat" is from the carob seed, which was used as balance scales to measure the weight of gold in ancient Asian bazaars.

What is Gold Karat?

Since the pure gold is too soft to make exquisite jewelries. Therefore, the gold jewelries are almost alloy which are mixed with other metals, such as silver, copper, or zinc. Pure gold is 24 karats. A unit karat of gold is equal to 1/24 part (4.1667%). The gold karat shows how many parts of gold and how many parts of other metals in a gold jewelry. The following chart shows the differences between the different karats, and also shows the percentage of gold and other metals.

Karats    gold percentage    Other Metal percentage

24kt    gold 100.00%    other metal 0.000%

22kt    gold 91.60%    other metal 8.4%

18kt    gold 75.00%    other metal 25%

14kt    gold 58.5%    other metal 41.500%

10kt    gold 41.7%    other metal 58.300%

6kt    gold 25%    other metal 75%

As I mentioned, gold is a relatively soft metal, so high-karat stuff are often easily damaged. A 24 karat item is generally reserved for display or ceremonial use. In the stores, most gold items have a karat rating in the range 9 to 18. In the US, the minimum karat value for gold jewelry to be sold is 10, but in the UK 9 karat is more common. In additional, gold purity does not affect its weight! Different color of gold are mixed with different other metals. For example, gold mixes copper is called red karat gold.

What's the difference between Karat and Carat?

We are often confusion over the differing use of "carat" and "karat". The Karat is a gold unit for purity, and Carat is a unit for mass which is used for measuring the weight of gemstones and pearls (1 carat is equal to 200mg). However, carat and karat are usually used interchangeably in some countries.

How to test the purity of gold?

There are two common methods to test gold for its purity, Acid Test Kits and Electronic Testing Kits. However, any acid testing will lose some small amount of gold.

The Best Reason in the World to Buy Gold

Beijing is planning to avoid U.S. financial sanctions on Iran by paying for oil with gold.  China’s imports of the metal are already large, and you can guess what additional purchases are going to do to prices.

On the last day of 2011, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012.  The NDAA, as it is called, attempts to reduce Iran’s revenue from the sale of petroleum by imposing sanctions on foreign financial institutions conducting transactions with Iranian financial institutions in connection with those sales.  This provision, which essentially cuts off sanctioned institutions from the U.S. financial system, takes effect on June 28.

The NDAA gives the president the power to waive the sanctions depending on the availability and price of supplies from non-Iranian sources.  He can also exempt financial institutions from countries that have significantly cut back purchases of Iranian petroleum.  Last month, the State Department announced waivers for Japan and ten European countries.  China, which has received American waivers in the past under other Iran legislation, is now Tehran’s largest oil customer and investor as well as its largest trading partner.  Given the new mood in Washington, Beijing cannot count on getting more exceptions in the future.

As the Wall Street Journal noted in early January, the sanctions are “an attempt to force other countries to choose between buying oil from Iran or being blocked from any dealings with the U.S. economy.”  The strict measures put Chinese officials in a bind.  They apparently believe their geopolitical interests align with those of Tehran, but their economy is becoming increasingly reliant on America’s.

So how can Beijing keep both Iran’s ayatollahs and President Obama happy at the same time?  Simple, the Chinese can avoid the U.S. sanctions through barter.  China has already been trading its produce for Iran’s petroleum, but there is only so much gai lan and bok choy the Iranians can eat.  That’s why Iran is also accepting, among other goods, Chinese washing machines, refrigerators, toys, clothes, cosmetics, and toiletries.

The barter trade works, but Iran needs cash too.  As it is being cut off from the global financial system, the next best thing is gold.  So we should not be surprised that in late February the Iranian central bank said it would accept that metal as payment for oil.   Last year, China imported $21.7 billion in Iranian oil and exported $14.8 billion in goods and services.  As the NDAA goes into effect, look for Beijing to ship gold to Iran to make up the difference.

Gold bugs, however, shouldn’t get too happy about Iran’s plight.  There are five principal factors that will depress anticipated demand for gold used to buy Iranian oil.  First, other countries will also be bartering agricultural and manufactured goods.  Russia and Pakistan, for instance, will undoubtedly continue wheat-for-petroleum arrangements.

Second, Tehran, out of apparent desperation, in February said it would also accept local currencies, thereby avoiding the U.S. financial system.  As a result, the Indians announced in January that they would not request a waiver from the Obama administration, and they began opening rupee accounts to pay for as much as 45% of their oil purchases with their currency.  In 2011, India exported only $2.7 billion to Iran while buying $9.5 billion in oil.  Similarly, the Chinese, smelling blood in the water, will surely press the Iranians to accept the non-convertible renminbi.

Third, the result of sanctions is that Iran’s oil exports could be cut by as much as 700,000 barrels a day.  China, for instance, is increasing its oil purchases from Saudi Arabia, its largest foreign supplier.  The Chinese are also buying more from the Persian Gulf emirates as well as Vietnam, Russia, and Africa.  Of course, every drop of other crude decreases China’s demand for Iran’s.

Fourth, China and other countries are taking advantage of Iran’s plight by negotiating large price reductions.

Fifth, if the Iranians are willing to accept wheat and non-tradable currencies in payment for oil, there is nothing to say they won’t start agreeing to silver too.

But nothing shines like gold.  And there is one other reason to be bullish on the yellow metal.  “This isn’t the end of the road,” noted an unnamed senior administration official to the Wall Street Journal days after the enactment of the NDAA.  “There are many other sanctions we can put in place and that our multilateral partners around the world can put in place and will be.”  As Washington tightens financial measures against Iran, the mullahs will have less access to hard currency and therefore more need for gold.

Unless, of course, they want to accumulate more Chinese washing machines.

I thank “straightarrow,” a reader of this column, for alerting me to this issue.

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the trend is to make bridal rings with platinum and other many uncommon

oday the trend is to make bridal rings with platinum and other many uncommon metals like tungsten and titanium. But pt wedding bands and pt wedding rings ar the most favorite among men and women. Platinum as the base metal and diamond or other stone or gem embellishments go well with pt rings. It may be men’s wedding bands or women’s wedding rings but everywhere it can be seen. Platinum is bright and glowing which attracts eyes. It is very much durable comparison with even gold. It is forever. When you will wear platinum in your finger you can feel the aura and the extraordinary feature of platinum. You can feel that you ar having the most valuable metal of the world. It has the charisma. And therefore everyone falls in love with platinum wedding bands and wedding ring sets automatically. Platinum can make everyone spellbound. But the only thing hera is that platinum does non come in a cheap price as it is known to all buyers. But to have a pt wedding band is nothing impossible for even middle class people. You can definitely go for it. Fix your price range and then make a choice for your beloved and you.

But till now nothing can replace the priority of gold among the couples. Gold is such a metal which can not lose its aura its shininess and beauty over the years. Gold as a metal is a lovely yellow color. Gold is favorable because it is looking good when it is worn and giving the right shape to it is easy and it is also durable.  Pure gold is also very malleable at 24 carats so it is easy to design and shape. However the best thing about the gold wedding ring is that it is available in different shades designs and goes well with other metals too. If you want to buy wedding ring made out of gold then you can quite dissimilar inspiring sunglasses like rose green and even white gold.

Now you may non be sure about the factor that which type of gold ring would be perfect for the design you choose. Sometimes it is good to choose a type that is not 24 karat because every design is non suitable for 24c gold.  This is because a higher karat that this would make the ring prostrate to twisting and going out of shape. So ensure that you select a wedding band that is either 14 c or 18 c. According to your necessity you can order a gold wedding ring which has alloyed metal.   Mixture of two or more alloys on with gold to create a special and cheap wedding ring can be applied. Also the more the proportion of gold the more expensive the wedding rings will be. So to have a long-lasting wedding ring

Gold Price History in United Arab Emirates Dirhams (AED) for August 2011

	Gold Price/oz	Gold Price/kg
01/08/11	5.927,96	209.102,64
02/08/11	6.113,31	215.640,83
03/08/11	6.100,26	215.180,20
04/08/11	6.079,19	214.437,15
05/08/11	6.063,81	213.894,52
08/08/11	6.332,46	223.370,93
09/08/11	6.335,38	223.473,99
10/08/11	6.604,09	232.952,55
11/08/11	6.479,30	228.550,52
12/08/11	6.413,11	226.215,66
15/08/11	6.483,58	228.701,51
16/08/11	6.546,51	230.921,31
17/08/11	6.586,60	232.335,61
18/08/11	6.695,50	236.176,67
19/08/11	6.805,26	240.048,65