Table of Contents
Last updated on August 8th, 2022 at 05:48 pm
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Do you own a piece of silver jewelry featuring a stamp of 18kgp? You may have found the mark after examining a silver-colored ring, necklace, or another type of jewelry. If you have come across the number and letter combination 18kgp, you may be wondering what it means.
Stamps on precious metals stand for the contents of the jewelry (or what type of jewelry it is). So, what does a 18kgp on silver mean? Well, what if I told you it meant that your silver jewelry isn’t silver after all?
That’s right, your 18kgp “silver” piece is actually made with gold!
18kgp means that it is 18 karat gold plated. If the piece looks silver, then you may be confused on how it is gold plated. Well, this is because it is white gold which is a silvery color rather than yellow. So 18kgp of silver colored jewelry is actually 18 karat white gold plated.
Authentic jewelry is stamped with a special marking called a hallmark. This is an official mark or series of marks on precious metals of gold, silver, and platinum. It shows how valuable that particular piece of metal is.
Silver will feature the following hallmarks: Fine silver (100 percent pure silver) will be marked as fine silver. Sterling silver is the next highest quality of silver and will be marked with a 925 or .925 or ”Sterling Silver”. When silver is marked with 925 or .925, this means that the piece is 92.5 percent pure silver.
Gold is marked with karats. The higher the number of karats the gold is, the more it is worth. A karat is a unit of fineness for gold that is equal to 1/24 part pure gold.
However many parts of the piece contain pure gold is what its karat amount will be. This is how it can determine how valuable it is.
Obviously a piece of gold that is 10/24 parts pure gold will be worth less than 24/24 parts pure gold. This is because all 24 parts of the 24k gold are made up of pure gold.
Now, jewelry isn’t typically made of 24k gold as it is much too soft and fragile. Pure gold can be easily scratched or damaged. Because of this, metal alloys are mixed with the gold to give it strength and durability.
That is why we see 18k, 14k, 10k, etc. weights of gold. The lower the amount of karat, the lower the amount of pure gold the jewelry is made up of. 18k is the closest to pure gold that you can get jewelry in. Now, if your piece is marked with 18kgp, this means that it is 18 karat gold plated. It is real gold however it is only gold plated which means it is not solid gold.
18kgp jewelry is typically silver jewelry that has gold plating on top of it. This allows you to have a nicer looking piece of jewelry without spending the money of getting 14k or 18k gold.
Gold plated jewelry is jewelry that is covered in a thin layer of gold or silver. But, since gold isn’t one of the main components of the jewelry, plated jewelry isn’t as expensive. It can still be very shiny and beautiful though.
Gold plated jewelry still contains gold, just a layer of it covering metal alloys that make up the rest of the piece. The gold plating on jewelry can come in different karat weights. 24k means that the piece is covered with pure gold, 18k means it is covered with 75 percent pure gold, and 14k means that it is covered with 58.5 percent pure gold.
If a piece of jewelry is marked 18kgf then this means that it is 18 karat gold filled with the “GF” meaning “Gold Filled”.
Silver isn’t marked in karats and only gold is marked in karats. If you have a piece of jewelry that features the letters GFP then it is definitely gold even though it is filled. As far as that silver color that I know you’ve been confused about, white gold is a silver/platinum color.
Although it is rare to find white gold plated pieces since they usually don’t use white gold to plated jewelry, a mark of 18kgp means that it is gold plated in 18 karat gold and because of the silver color, it has to be white gold.
To see the most popular white gold jewelry just click here.
Is 18kgp Worth Anything?
Jewelry catches our eye especially when it glitters in the light. And we all like when jewelry is real. So, we know that kgp means gold plated and if a piece is silver colored with this mark then it is white gold and not silver. But, this is a good thing because gold is worth more than silver.
So, if you find that you have a gold plated piece of jewelry instead of a silver one, is it worth more? Speaking of worth, since it is only gold plated, is 18kgp worth anything?
18kgp jewelry is worth something but it isn’t nearly as much as normal 18k gold jewelry. A thin layer of gold over top of alloys gives the jewelry some sort of value but nothing that can compete with a regular 18k gold piece.
All gold is worth something, even if it contains only a small amount of gold in it. But, pieces made with more gold are obviously worth more.
Below are commonly known karats of gold and what makes them more valuable and worth something:
- 24k gold – This is the highest amount of karats in a piece of gold meaning that it is made up of 99.9 to 100 percent pure gold. All 24 of its parts are pure gold. Since gold is naturally yellow, 24k gold is “gold” in color.
- 18k gold – This is 75 percent gold. 18 of its parts are pure gold while 6 parts are other metals. The metals can be nickel, silver, copper, zinc, or palladium depending on the color of the gold.
- 14k gold – This is 58.5 percent pure gold. 14 of its parts are pure gold and the remaining 10 parts are other metals such as nickel, silver, copper, zinc, or palladium. Just like 18k gold, what metals and how many are used determine what color the gold will be.
When compared with 18k gold jewelry, 18kgp is worth a fraction of it. A 18k gold piece weighing 50 grams is worth somewhere around $3000 while 18kgp weighing 50 grams is only worth about $10-$50. So, while it isn’t very much, gold plated jewelry and more specifically 18kgp jewelry is worth something.
14k gold is the most common type of gold used for jewelry. It is the most durable since it contains more alloys than 18k or 24k gold.
18kgp on silver means that it isn’t silver but it is actually 18k gold plated. The 18k stands for how many karats it is and how much it is worth and the “GP” stands for “Gold Plated”.
It can be a pleasant surprise to find that your sparkling silver piece is actually plated in white gold even if it isn’t worth as much as a piece that it actually 18k gold.