We all know it’s pretty hard to check whether the gold jewelry we are purchasing contains a decent amount of gold or not. It’s important to figure out as if it is not real gold, it would either change color or cause infection.
Most of the time the gold jewelry we purchase turns green. We begin thinking the jewelry was either made of inferior gold or it was not even gold.
It’s pretty common for gold jewelry to turn green. Does that mean most of the gold jewelry sold in the market is of inferior quality? Time to resolve the mystery.
Does Real Gold Turn Green?
No, real gold does not turn green because it is a non-reactive metal. In fact, real gold does not change color at all. The real gold happens to have orange-yellow color, no matter what happens it retains its color.
However, gold jewelry can turn green. It’s important to mention here that the term “real gold” means gold that is not mixed with any metal to make jewelry. Whereas, gold jewelry contains a decent amount of gold and some other metals like copper, palladium, nickel, or zinc.
Gold does not change however, other metals like copper do. If the gold jewelry contains a huge amount of copper, there are some solid chances that it would turn green.
The 18k and 24k gold contain less amount of other metals and a decent amount of gold, it hardly tarnishes; changes color. However, the 14k and 10k gold jewelry usually turn green.
Reasons that Turn the Gold Green
Since it’s pretty common for gold jewelry to turn green, here are the major reasons why it happens so.
- Metallic abrasion
- Oxidation
- Corrosion
- Low-quality plating
Metallic abrasion
Metallic abrasion is a major reason why “women’s” gold jewelry turns green. The discoloration happens when the cosmetics women wear contains metals harder than gold.
If the women continue to wear the same cosmetic for a long time metallic abrasion occurs and it leaves its mark in the shape of a powdery substance that is usually green in color.
Oxidation
As per research, Oxidation can also make gold jewelry turn green. As you might already know, pure gold can not be turned into jewelry, the gold is rather mixed with a few metals like copper, palladium, nickel, or zinc to form jewelry and give it strength.
Whether it’s copper, silver, zinc, or nickel, all these metals have oxides over time.
They can not stand the exposure to oxygen, perspiration, and warmth for a long time. Therefore, they end up oxidizing and turning green.
If the gold jewelry contains a good amount of any of the above-mentioned metals, the metal oxidizes and turns green.
This usually happens with the 10k and 14k gold as they have more percentage of other metals than gold.
Corrosion
Most gold jewelry is turned green due to oxidation, metallic abrasion or low-quality plating. Corrosion does cause discoloration. However, it only happens when the person swims in the pools frequently. Important to remember gold does not rust.
The pool water contains a high level of chlorine, and the chlorine is naturally corrosive to metal. Therefore as a result of corrosion, the gold jewelry turns green.
Low-quality plating
Before being available for sale, the gold jewelry has to pass through a process called “rhodium plating”. The low-quality plating also contributes to turning the gold jewelry green.
Conclusion
In brief, No, real gold does not turn green as it is categorized as a non-reactive metal. However, gold jewelry can turn green because it is a mixture of non-reactive(gold) and reactive metals like copper, palladium, nickel, or zinc. The metallic abrasion, corrosion, oxidation, and low-quality plating usually turn the gold jewelry green.