For centuries gold has amazed and allured all those who have set eyes on it. It was used as far back as Egyptian times to make jewellery and also worn as a symbol of status, which made it popular with royalty. Gold is an extremely versatile material and this alone makes it ideal for use in jewellery manufacture. Gold is also used in other industries as well as the jewellery industry. The most common type of gold used to manufacture jewellery is nine carat gold.

The word carat originates from the carob tree where one carob bean was the system for weighing gold. Rice was also used to weight gold in the Far East and four grains of rice would be equal to one carob bean. As time moved on and imperial and metric measures became standard so did the system by which gold was
measured. Twenty four carat gold is pure gold and is equal to one thousand parts.

As this type of gold is quite soft and malleable it makes it extremely easy to work with. However, the one disadvantage is that this type of gold is not practical for everyday wear, because of the softness of the metal. In order to strengthen gold and make it more durable alloys are added in varying amounts to pure gold. The ratio of the pure gold to the added alloys will give the carat weight of the gold. For example eighteen carat gold is 750 parts pure gold and 250 parts alloy. Nine carat gold is the smallest ratio of gold to alloy that jewellery is made from. This is the strongest and most durable type of gold and very popular for this reason alone. It also has the added advantage of being cheaper than other higher carat gold weights.