T G Precious Metals & Diamonds

Information may not be reliable

Some say diamonds are a girls best friends but I disagree. Pearls are generally overlooked for diamonds which is a shame as they are just as beautiful. They go with just about everything a woman would care to wear from a party frock to a simple sweater. Because pearls are so versatile and attractive there is a very large market for them. This leads to counterfeiting which can be a large problem if you are interested in buying pearls as a lot of money is usually involved. Fake pearls are not too hard to spot with the appropriate knowledge but without it you could easily be duped out of hundreds of pounds. Here are the basics you need to know on how to spot fake pearls. Firstly the easiest aspect of the pearl to inspect is the shape and texture of it. As opposed to common belief true pearls are actually quite rough to the touch and also not perfectly round. When inspecting the pearl be sure to check the texture of it. A good way to check the texture is to rub the pearl gently against your tooth, a fake pearl will be very soft and smooth whereas a real pearl will be quite rough. Also if you look closely to a fake pearl you will see that it is perfectly round and circular but if the pearl is real it will have small bumps and indentations on its surface. Secondly, another easy aspect to check is colour. Hold up your pearl to the light and inspect the variation in colour. If the pearl is real it will not be perfectly white it should have some variation. Therefore if the pearl is perfectly white and contains no variation then it is probably fake. Lastly you should check the density of your pearls. It can be quite important because real pearls are usually quite heavy whereas fake pearls are generally hollow so quite light. This test is not foolproof though as some high quality fakes mimic the density of true pearls. If you suspect that you have any fake pearls in your property take them to a jeweler as they will be able to carry out those tests for you.

Diamonds, how are they made?

As everyone knows diamonds are a girls best friend, but do the girls know what they are wearing on their fingers when they put on their diamond wedding rings? Simply put a diamond is made entirely out of carbon. But the physical atomic make up of carbon is anything but simple. Diamond is an allotrope of carbon. This means its carbon atoms are arranged in an extremely large crystalline structure called a diamond lattice. Due to its very large lattice structure and extremely strong covalent bond diamond has the highest hardness and thermal conductivity of any bulk material. Because of the extreme hardness of diamond it has many industrial uses in cutting and polishing tools. Another aspect of diamond caused by its hard rigid lattice is the colour. Because diamonds have such a strong rigid structure it means that they can be contaminated by very few substances. Diamonds also have a very wide transparency and that combined with the rigid structure results in the clear colourless aspect of most natural diamonds. Also diamonds have fairly high optical dispersion levels. This means that when light hits them it produces a range of colours causing the diamonds characteristic luster that makes it so attractive. Diamonds are formed very very deep under the earth, up to around 190 km into the mantle. Most natural diamonds formed underground are formed through the combination of extreme pressure and heat which cause the carbon atoms to combine and form the allotrope that is diamond.

Carats, what are they all about?

Are you interested in looking to buy gold bullion? If you are then you should know all about carats. A carat or karat is a measurement of the purity of gold and gold alloys. To work out the carat of a quantity of gold or gold alloy you have to divide the mass of gold by the total mass of the object and then multiply it by 24. Therefore 24 carat gold is 99.9 % gold with a 0.1 % margin of error. 18 carat gold is 75% and 12 carat is 50%. By simply looking at those figures you would assume 24 carat gold is the best as it is practically pure gold. But pure gold has some major drawbacks. The main drawback of pure gold is that the gold in its pure element is a very soft metal. This means that if it is used for making rings and necklaces it is very vulnerable to damage due to it being so soft. Also obviously the higher the purity of gold the more it is worth. This means that if your ring is 24 carat it could be worth a very large amount of money and that it could be very easily damaged. This shows that there is little point in spending such a large amount of money on an item that is extremely vulnerable to damage.