What is red gold, why is it called that and what grades there are + cost per gram today

Red, yellow metal, aurum, despicable metal - these names mean ordinary gold, familiar to all of us. Jewelry made from it is considered a wonderful gift because it has a dazzling shine and symbolizes prosperity.

In the old days there was a spool testing system, which is not used today. From that period of time, red gold came to us, from which coins were printed.

Many people mistakenly think that this is a precious metal of the highest 999 standard. But that's not true.

Pure gold is used for the production of ingots, since it is unsuitable for the production of jewelry due to the softness of the metal (it is easily deformed and susceptible to various mechanical damage).

What is red gold

This is not a pure metal (gold without impurities, 999 fine - yellow, without redness), but an alloy of gold and copper. It is copper that gives it its exquisite reddish tint. The technical term “red gold” has long been outdated and is used only colloquially.

Such an alloy is now very rare and is practically not used, since it is very impractical and inconvenient for everyday use. Jewelry made from such gold can only be obtained by individual order from a jeweler or antique dealer.

What to consider when purchasing products

Commemorative badges, medals, precious coins, and bank gold bars are made from gold of the highest standard.

Au 24 carat is a heavy metal. The weight of the products is at least 10 grams. Accordingly, the cost of a small product will be high. Pure gold jewelry is rare. Mostly, jewelers make massive wedding rings: thanks to their volume, they will retain their shape.

The surface of the product is easy to scratch, so the jewelry should be stored carefully.

History of origin

Chervonny (scarlet), translated from Old Church Slavonic, means red, scarlet. In Tsarist Russia, chervonets were originally the name given to foreign gold coins - ducats, sequins, florins. Own coins have been minted in Rus' since the 15th century as award insignia.

The first Russian chervonets as a means of payment appeared as a result of the monetary reform carried out by Peter the Great. In terms of weight and alloy value, they corresponded to foreign coins and were intended only for settlements with foreign subjects.

A common practice was to make expensive jewelry from chervonets, because purer gold simply did not exist at that time due to the impossibility of higher purification. Therefore, red gold is still mistakenly considered to be the name of a chemically pure element.

Diamond weight

A girl's best friend is diamonds! Cut diamonds are popular all over the world. There are many tables for determining their weight without special measuring instruments.

How to determine how much a diamond weighs if you know the size in mm

The weight of diamonds, like other cut stones, is calculated using tables. To measure them, they do not use ordinary rulers, but special ones, with divisions in fractions of millimeters.

Since often a gem does not fit exactly 2 or 4 millimeters in size, it can have a dimension of 2.1 and so on.

The type of cut is also taken into account when calculating the weight of the stone:

1. For a round cut, multiply the height of the diamond by the diameter of the girdle squared and by a factor of 0.006.
2. For a heart cut, the length is multiplied by height, width, length and a factor of 0.0059.
3. For the pear cut, the formula is similar to the heart cut.

The coefficient changes, and it depends on the ratio of the length and width of the processed stone. To simplify counting, there are various tables that will help the owner quickly calculate the approximate weight of a diamond.

One carat diamonds

Such a diamond is considered a large stone. So, 1 carat is how many grams? 200 mg is a generally accepted value. For a processed diamond, a weight of 200 mg is considered so significant that 1 carat of diamond (price in rubles) can reach 25 million. A 1 carat diamond, the price of which is significantly lower, may turn out to be of poor quality or counterfeit.

A low quality diamond can be bought for 60,000 rubles; the better the quality, the higher the cost. Diamonds over 1 carat are considered premium stones.

The cost of a diamond can also be affected by its shade; the most popular stones are transparent, without color impurities. Do not forget that 1 carat of diamond does not guarantee the same value for all diamonds, since there are other criteria.

What is 1 carat diamond:

Diamond weight table

What is a carat of a diamond? As with other gems, this is a measure of weight. Diamond carats table:

How it is made

Red gold is obtained by introducing a certain amount of copper into the composition. Such additions to precious metals are called alloys.

Nowadays, an alloy of a similar shade is also used, but its standard is much lower, and in addition to copper, it contains silver. This three-component alloy is widely used today due to its good strength and malleability. It lends itself well to soldering. Products made from this alloy are more durable, and the visual difference between the two types of gold is a slight difference in shades of red and is noticeable only upon close inspection.

Next, watch an interesting video about how gold is made:

Legislative regulation

Russia provides for strict regulation and quality control of metal. In Decree of the Russian Federation No. 372 of April 5, 1999, the Ministry of Finance is assigned the responsibility to control the certification of precious metals and products made from them. Certification is required:

1. Cut gemstones. They are tested at retail.
2. Diamonds without jewelry processing.
3. Unique nuggets.
4. Minerals and recyclable materials with admixtures of precious metals.

Resolution of the Russian Federation No. 394 of May 6, 2016 “On testing, analysis and hallmarking of jewelry and other products made of precious metals” establishes:

• types of products subject to the branding procedure;
• procedure for providing the brand;
• labeling methods;
• reasons for refusal;
• sample setting algorithm;
• restrictions on the use of solders.

A mark with a mark indicates the purity, that is, the purity of the precious metal. They are divided:

• 375 – the percentage of pure gold is 38.5%;
• 500 – half consists of impurities;
• 583 – 58.3% gold;
• 585 – 58.5% Au;
• 750 – 25% base metal;
• 958 – 0.42% impurities;
• 999 – the purest gold, 24 carats.

The most common markings are 585 and 750. They are distinguished by increased strength and hardness.

The influence of impurities on the color of gold

Precious metal shades are not limited to red. By changing the composition of the ligature and the proportions of the components, you can achieve the most unexpected colors:

• red – 33.5% copper and 8% silver;
• pink – 9% silver and 32% copper;
• lemon – 30% silver, 11.5% copper;
• white – 25% nickel, 10% silver, 3.5% zinc and 3% copper;
• olive – 15% silver, 6% copper and 4% cadmium.

With the development of technology, new chemical compounds appeared - intermetallic compounds, which further expanded the color palette:

• amethyst – 21% aluminum;
• blue – 54% indium;
• black – 25% cobalt.

How to compare stone prices

There are criteria for determining the cost of a stone:

1. Shade and color. Color intensity can greatly influence the price of a gem. Stones that are too dark or light will be lower in price; admixtures of different colors also reduce the cost. The most valuable stones will be those with deep, bright shades.
2. Processing (cut, shape). The type of cut reveals the stone's ability to play with light. The better the work is done, the more the gem will shine and the more valuable it will be.
3. Transparency. Natural stones are rarely completely free of defects; the most transparent ones are an exception and are sold at auctions at high prices.
4. Size and weight. This criterion affects stones of good quality more; for low-grade gems, size matters much less. The size may be different for stones of the same weight, but it is the mass that plays a big role. The cost of a good diamond of 0.25 carats will be about 160,000 rubles, and 0.5 ct – already about 300,000 rubles.

Attention! Expensive stones must have a quality certificate.

Why are gemstones measured in carats?

What are the hallmarks of red gold?

The precious metal content in red gold changed at different times, but never fell below 900. Until 1927, a spool system for testing alloys was used in Russia. It had, rather, not a percentage, but a quantitative expression. The value of gold in the coin corresponded to its face value: a 10-ruble coin of the 1885 model contained 2 spools - 11.62 grams of pure gold with a weight of 12.9 g.

1. The coins of the Peter the Great era were 986 fine.
2. Under Catherine, the standard of five-ruble chervonets was lowered to 916.
3. Nicholas Imperials - 900 standard.
4. Soviet chervonets, issued in the years 22-25 of the 20th century, were stamped with the number 900.

How to decipher a gold standard

If we are talking about the metric system, then the mark on the precious metal displays how many grams of pure substance are in a kilogram of the alloy. So, 585 standard means that 1 kg of alloy contains 585 g, or 58.5% gold.

In the karat assay system, a chemically pure substance has a hallmark of 24 carats. A hallmark of 22 carats corresponds to 916 metric hallmarks, 14 to 585.

In the spool system, the unit of calculation is taken to be a pound, equal to 96 spools.

Conversion tables are used to convert sample values ​​from one system to another.

Sample table

Category: question-answer

Is it possible to buy a red coin today as an investment?

Expert opinion

Anton Egorov

Financial Consultant

Coins made of scarlet alloy, left over from past centuries, are now quite valuable, and gradually their value is only increasing. Therefore, various products made from this type of metal can easily be purchased as a means of investment, adding to your home jewelry collection.

Our family has kept our great-grandmother’s ring for several generations since the revolution. How to find out if it is made of red gold?

Expert opinion

Grishanov Mikhail Petrovich

Jeweler, director of the Grishanov and Co. workshop

Jewelry made from scarlet precious metal is very rare; it was used mainly for issuing coins. But some family items were passed down from generation to generation and could survive to this day. Externally, red gold has a yellow color with a slight, barely noticeable reddish tint. To determine the authenticity of a scarlet alloy, you can contact a specialist. Previously, authenticity was checked by heating the product to a certain temperature. At the same time, the heated metal had a bright red hue.

Where can you see the royal red gold?

Expert opinion

Pribrezhny Gennady Valentinovich

Jeweler 6th category

Nowadays, authentic scarlet coins issued during the tsarist reign are in private collections. Occasionally, expensive specimens can be seen at museum exhibitions and auctions.

Golden coins

What does red gold look like?

Expert opinion

Grishanov Mikhail Petrovich

Jeweler, director of the Grishanov and Co. workshop

Externally, the scarlet alloy is most similar in color to gold bars, but differs in a faint red tint. It is impossible to find any more significant external differences. It is worth noting that the products are extremely soft, which is why they quickly and easily deform.

What standard is red gold?

Expert opinion

Pribrezhny Gennady Valentinovich

Jeweler 6th category

For a long time, scarlet gold of various samples was used, but the proportion of pure gold in the alloy never fell below 90%.

The cost of high-grade gold

The noble metal served as the basis for the emergence of commodity-money relations and to this day is a stable international currency. Its value is formed as a result of exchange trading and has been steadily growing in price in recent years.

Price per 1 gram

You can find out how much a high-grade pure gold alloy costs right now, online, on our website using the chart.

Similar information on changes in the cost of bank gold per gram is presented in tabular format for the convenience of users.

Unique metal

Few people today know what red gold is.

Red gold is a gold alloy of the highest standard. It must have no more than 10% alloying additives (ligatures) and, accordingly, no less than 90% pure gold.

This metal itself is very ductile and soft. Jewelry made from absolutely pure gold quickly loses its shape. Such a ring can become dented if, for example, it hits a hard surface, which is why gold alloys are mainly used in jewelry. They contain various alloys, or additives, that increase the hardness and strength of the alloy while maintaining ductility.

Red gold is part of history. It was from it that in the old days coins of the highest denomination were minted, for example the Polish “scarlet zloty” or the so-called “Nicholas” chervonets, issued by the government of the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II. One chervonets weighed 8.6 g and almost until the start of World War II it was among the most popular currencies around the world, as it consisted of almost pure, with a small amount of impurities, precious yellow metal. The cost of the alloy from which the “Nicholas” royal chervonets was made is now about 1,800 rubles per gram, excluding the numismatic value of the coin.

How to properly care for gold jewelry

Gold products are highly resistant to external factors, but need to be cleaned from household dirt. This is especially true for items for everyday wear.

There are several ways to carry out this procedure at home:

1. Place items in the saline solution for 12 hours, then rinse thoroughly. To prepare the solution you will need a glass of boiled water and 3 tablespoons of salt.
2. You can also use a mixture of ammonia and soap; 2 hours will be enough to clean jewelry, then the solution is washed off with plenty of water. Ingredients: a teaspoon of ammonia and liquid soap per glass of boiled water.
3. Without pressing, wipe the products with a cotton swab dipped in three percent hydrogen peroxide, leave for 15 minutes, then rinse with plenty of water.

Plastic or ceramic containers are used for soaking jewelry, but not metal ones. After rinsing, they are carefully and thoroughly wiped with lint-free wipes and polished with suede.

Due to its softness, the cleaning of items and jewelry made of red gold should be entrusted to a jeweler.