Gold Filled Jewelry Markings

See my other guide to find out more about the different kinds of gold plated jewelry including their markings.

Gold filled jewelry markings. Look for markings like pt or pt followed by a number to indicate platinum metal. Standard purity marks used for vintage gold jewelry. In europe purity marks are commonly shown as percentages. In that case it s either plated or filled gold or it s costume plain old jewelry not real gold.

The most common identifier of gold filled items is the sign gf after the karat number. A typical marking on gold filled jewelry might read 14k gf meaning it was made of metal coated with a 14 karat gold alloy with the alloy making up 5 percent of the item s total metal weight. However such pieces usually have additional letters and numbers stamped that indicate that they are not solid gold. Gold filled jewelry should also have markings indicating its karat number.

Vermeil pronounced ver may is gold. Jewelry engraved with hge heavy gold electroplate ge gold electroplate or gf gold filled may appear to be made of gold but it is actually fashioned from other materials such as copper and contains only a very small amount of gold. Vintage gold jewelry with european purity marks. Some other markings mean a jewelry item is not fine karat gold.