Jewelry made in Turkey is popular all over the world. Travel agencies specially organize separate tours for thousands of tourists who want to buy exquisite jewelry made from Turkish gold, which is famous not only for its bright golden color, but also for its affordable prices, as well as the fine work of local jewelers who create exact copies of famous brands.
Advantages of Turkish products
There is an opinion that all the gold raw materials from which Turkish jewelers make their products are imported. In fact, Turkey has its own production well developed, although the mines are not very large, but traditionally it is customary to buy raw materials through an established channel from Germany and America. The style of jewelry is presented in three options:
- Turkish traditional - found in specialized stores where the local population buys gifts for special events, is distinguished by its high content of 24-carat pure gold and ornate oriental luxury;
- Byzantine - an interesting combination of yellow, white and red metal with a scattering of precious stones in various variations, with a purity of 22 and 24 carats;
- European - products in a modern style, from the finest weaves to massive and flashy decorations, often copied from the latest fashion developments, and very skillfully.
A distinctive feature of Turkish jewelers is the technique of dripping gold, thanks to which amazing “lace” is created. In addition to its external beauty, tourists are also attracted by its low cost. Although the price per gram of Turkish gold has increased significantly since 2016, it is still lower than prices for an alloy of similar purity in Russia and Europe and ranges from 30 to 50 dollars. The price depends both on the alloy (additional metals in the alloy) and on the complexity of the work.
Two factors - low cost and external beauty, which made Turkish products so popular, could not help but provoke competitors into "black" PR and rumors about low-quality raw materials containing nickel. After a number of ordered articles in the press, many tourists still doubt whether it is worth buying gold in Turkey.
Large stores in tourist areas can always present quality certificates for any product, and the owners personally check all products purchased from suppliers because they value their reputation. Of course, there is a risk of buying a fake, especially if you buy from inconspicuous shops of dubious appearance, but most shops in the resort area have existed for decades and strive to get regular customers.
What are buyers saying?
Reviews about Turkish gold can be found in a variety of ways: both good and negative. Those who admire the imported jewelry cite an attractive price and aesthetic appearance as arguments. The products of Turkish jewelers truly amaze with their beauty and special oriental charm, which is also inherent in Indian jewelry. Original rings and earrings delight tourists who come to relax on the Mediterranean coast, and their low cost allows you to buy a gift not only for yourself, but also for relatives.
The cost of jewelry made from precious metals in Turkey is really low. When purchasing Turkish gold, you will be surprised that the price per gram is about the same as that of silver jewelry. Add to the low price the bright shine of the metal, an unusual design and you will get the secret of the success of Turkish gold among visitors.
Negative reviews about gold from Turkey are written by those who fell for an unscrupulous seller, were misled, or bought a fake instead of the precious metal. For some, the joy of buying a new piece of jewelry was spoiled by the onset of an allergy; others were disappointed with the results of the jewelry examination. So that after arriving home from Turkey you are not left with an unpleasant aftertaste from wasted money, it is recommended to buy products made of yellow metal in well-known salons, having previously inquired about the gold standards existing in Turkey and carefully examined the jewelry from all sides.
Jewelry stores in Turkey
Few tourists realize that there are differences between shops. The design of the product and its price will depend on where exactly you decide to go for jewelry. In resort Turkey you can buy jewelry in one of three places.
Jewelry center
Huge shops with several floors in resort Turkey are located at some distance from the hotels and the center. They offer a free trip: a group of several people is recruited, buyers are taken shopping in an organized manner and returned to the hotel. There are two surprises from such a trip - the first is pleasant: tourists are delighted with the luxurious interiors of such centers, the service and the beauty of the decorations. But the second one turns out to be unpleasant: the prices are not at all as low as expected.
How to buy gold in shopping centers? Despite the fact that the establishment looks very respectable, bargaining is no less appropriate here than at a fruit and vegetable market. Reduce the price until it is acceptable. If the final price is still very high, but you like the product and your heart doesn’t want anything else, try the following maneuver: leave without purchasing it and return on your own another day.
Trip organizers charge the store a certain percentage for delivering the goods to customers, and often the seller keeps the price based on the amount of the intermediary's remuneration.
Pros: Shopping at jewelry centers is well organized, enjoyable and completely safe, and the selection of products is simply endless.
Cons: Prices may be higher than in smaller stores.
Small jewelry store
Every resort town and village has a bazaar. Tourists come here to stroll and buy a nice souvenir. There are also jewelry shops here. They sell very inexpensive children's earrings and bracelets, wedding rings, elegant items with precious stones and branded jewelry - Cartier and Roberto Bravo. Prices for the latter will be significantly lower than in Russian boutiques.
How to buy: when bargaining with the seller, take a closer look - is there a store owner on the horizon? The biggest discounts can only be obtained from the owner - a simple seller is limited in his powers, but the owner is often ready to sell the item with a minimal markup.
Jewelry stores for locals
They are located a little further from the resort center - as a rule, on the second or third line, in the area of residential areas. Prices there may be lower than in the first two places. However, the design of the products will vary greatly. Oriental jewelry designed for Turks is offered.
Heavy, massive bracelets made of 22-karat gold are sold here - such jewelry is given to brides; Turkish women wear these bracelets almost without taking them off. You can also buy pure gold coins of different weights - quarter, half and whole.
It is best to go to a Turkish jewelry store for just such items. The jewelry here is suitable only for those who are interested in oriental design.
Features of jewelry from Turkey
Turkish gold is different from other jewelry; it can only be compared with jewelry from India. They also look impressive and have a similar design. But don’t delude yourself - when buying jewelry in an oriental style, you can stumble upon a fake.
Gold in a store in Istanbul
At the same time, the price per gram, compared to the prices of domestic producers, may pleasantly surprise the buyer. You can purchase jewelry for the price of a silver product made in Russia.
Jewelry may well meet high standards, but you should not relax. Before making a purchase, you must ensure that the product meets the specified requirements.
So, how to check Turkish gold for quality:
- It is necessary to inspect the product and study the mark.
- Check for damage.
Often, jewelers from the East pass off silver or copper, which is coated with a layer of gold, as a precious metal.
The earrings or rings are marked with a special mark; the hallmark differs from the one used in Russia. The Turks put the letter “K” on jewelry - it indicates the percentage of gold contained in the product.
For example, 14K standard corresponds to 585 standard. The larger the number in front of the letter “K”, the higher the purity and precious metal content in the product.
But enterprising Turkish jewelers often pass off a low-grade fake under the guise of a quality product. A visual inspection will help you recognize the quality of the product. If the jewelry has a pronounced red tint, this indicates that there is too much copper in the ligature.
An alloy of gold and copper gives a red tint; the cost of jewelry made from such an alloy is much lower.
Also, you should not buy a product that is too yellow in color. Such a shade may indicate that it was not a precious metal that fell into the hands of the buyer, but costume jewelry, the cost of which is much lower than gold.
Since gold is not mined in Turkey, but jewelry from this metal is successfully made and sold, jewelers resort to cunning. When making an alloy, impurities are added to the master alloy - metals that are not distinguished by their nobility.
Palladium, an element of the platinum group, is often added to the alloy. It gives the alloy a cool tone and is more commonly found in white gold jewelry.
To reduce the cost of production, jewelers replace platinum with nickel, a metal that has nothing to do with precious metals. Its addition to the ligature can lead to a person becoming allergic.
Jewelry made of gold with the addition of nickel has the same color and shade, but it can harm human health, unlike platinum - it does not cause allergies. Thus, the cost of decoration is reduced significantly, but the quality suffers.
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Additional service
Any purchased product can be adjusted to size free of charge - stretched or reduced. There is always a special workshop next to the jewelry store or inside.
When making a purchase, you can ask to clean your old jewelry - everything is done very quickly and completely free. Engraving is done on children's bracelets or wedding rings.
The Turks readily accept orders - the jewelry they like is delivered to the store directly from the factory within 2-3 days.
Factors influencing the price
Thus, many additional factors influence how much a gram of gold will cost in Turkey. High-quality raw materials, natural precious stones, handicraft are always highly valued and products of this level can be much more expensive than Russian ones, especially if they are branded with the appropriate certificate.
The beauty is that Turkish craftsmen make excellent copies, identical to the branded ones, which can be purchased at half the price. In addition, pricing is affected by:
- huge competition in the market for the production and sale of jewelry;
- direct dependence on the quotation of the yellow metal on the international market;
- the country's position as the second largest seller of jewelry on the world stage.
Jewelry in cities not associated with tourism will cost much less than in the resort area, regardless of what standard of Turkish gold the buyer is interested in. In tourist places it is customary to bargain and, knowing this, sellers initially inflate prices so as not to sell at a loss. The situation on the international foreign exchange market, however, does not allow selling cheaper than 35-40 dollars per gram of 24-carat precious metal.
The unwritten rule of successful purchase and sale is that in a store in a tourist area it is permissible to bargain within 30% of the stated amount. No one will sell a product at a loss, so if the seller knocked off a third of the previously offered price, then you can safely buy, there is no fraud.
In stores at large factories, where thousands of tourists are brought from nearby hotels, the situation is different - the prices there are several times higher and you can confidently ask for them to be reduced by two or three times. The guides who accompany potential buyers and the general manager of the hall receive a certain percentage of sales, so it is not profitable for them for a person to leave without purchasing; accordingly, there is a high chance that the product will be sold at the real price.
You also need to remember that jewelry purchased during a tour to a large factory or in licensed stores “Hadrian Group”, “Roberto Bravo”, “Mona Lisa” legally fall under the category of the tax free discount system, even if the manager of the hall assures that it is not so. The cost of one gram of gold in such places does not fall below $50. The seller is required to issue a check for a refund of 18% of the purchase, which can be obtained in a special department at the airport. If, nevertheless, the buyer received a categorical refusal, then he can calmly ask for a discount for this amount when making a purchase in the store.
If the actual composition of the ligature does not matter to a person, but only the appearance and affordable prices at which he can buy exquisite gifts for all family members are important, then in Turkey this plan can be implemented without much difficulty by moving away from the central jewelry streets to less populated areas , focusing on how the product looks.
Buyers who value the quality and composition of gold should purchase it in licensed stores or buy a jewelry detector before traveling, which will absolutely detect a fake.
It is also worth paying attention to the shops with rows of massive Turkish bracelets and coins covering the entire window. This is where local people who know a lot about genuine gold buy. In such places, all products are 24 carat and there are never fakes, since it is a matter of honor.
Another thing is that oriental design and high prices may not satisfy tourists who are accustomed to big discounts. In stores for locals, prices are usually fixed, since Turks buy gold not only as a gift, but also as an investment, and price tags also reflect the dynamics of the metal’s price on the international market.
How to avoid getting scammed?
Turkish gold is a great souvenir from a summer trip for yourself and a beautiful gift for loved ones. What do you need to consider when choosing gold jewelry in Turkey so as not to be deceived?
Turks often offer counterfeit gold - tompak - instead of gold. Tompak is an alloy of zinc and copper, the latter giving it a “golden” hue. This fake made from tombac looks quite decent, perfectly imitating gold; a simple tourist is unlikely to distinguish it from the precious metal in appearance. Products made from tombac are sold even in large stores, but does a tourist really want to buy an imitation of the precious metal? The presence of a hallmark stamp may not help here; very often, tombac fakes have gold markings. Ordinary visiting tourists do not know at all what foreign samples on jewelry should look like.
This is what a tombak looks like.
Turkish jewelry may only be partially made of gold. The jeweler simply combines two alloys: a third of the chain or bracelet is made of yellow metal, and the rest is made of another material that imitates precious metal. Such alloys include:
- Electron (gold with silver);
- Polyxene (platinum with a large number of impurities);
- Goldin (aluminum with copper);
- Belgica (chrome, nickel and iron).
In this case, the decoration will bear a high standard marking.
Another reason for the low price of gold that Turks offer tourists in their jewelry stores may be its low standard. Often, helpful sellers try to sell jewelry made from low-grade raw materials with 375 markings as a quality product. This alloy contains many impurities, which is why the product has a low cost. Turkish gold can sometimes even turn out to be gilded silver.
One of the fakes.
In order not to buy a fake, it is best to carefully consider your future purchase. You can take a jewelry detector with you, but not everyone has one, and why take it with you to Turkey? In addition, the device does not always correctly determine where the precious metal is and where the tombac is. It is recommended to test the product by ear: toss the Turkish ring you like along with your gold one. The sound of falling decorations should be the same. If this is not the case, you have reason to think that this is a beautiful imitation made of tombac.
Turkish gold attracts buyers with its beautiful reddish hue. This is where you shouldn’t believe the seller who says it’s high quality from the very beginning. The red tint is achieved due to the large amount of copper in the ligature - under such conditions, a piece of jewelry cannot be of high quality, even if it bears the appropriate marking.
YOU CAN IDENTIFY GOLD-PLATED JEWELRY USING A PSYCHOLOGICAL TECHNIQUE: JUST PICK IT UP IN VIEW OF THE SELLER. HIS REACTION WILL BE MORE Eloquent Than WORDS.
You can buy high-quality gold in Turkey; for this it is important to contact large and well-known salons and carefully study the product when purchasing. There is high-grade gold in this country, but it is sold at prices similar to Russian jewelry. Low-cost jewelry is unlikely to please its owners after returning home.
In this article:
Turkish gold attracts buyers with its low cost and exquisite design. Openwork weaving of a ring or earrings can delight any woman. But not everything is so simple - Turkey does not have its own gold; jewelers use metal imported from the USA or Germany to make jewelry. So why is fine jewelry so cheap, and is there a catch?
Gold color
For those who are not accustomed to European jewelry, Turkish jewelry looks unusual. Some even begin to doubt whether they are really made of gold? The fact is that European jewelry is most often made of yellow gold. There are only three shades in total:
- Red gold (traditional for Russia) received its hue due to the admixture of copper.
- Yellow - the proportion of copper here is very small, the composition includes silver.
- White - gets its noble shade, different from silver products, due to the admixture of palladium.
For 20 years, the Turks have already taken into account the commitment of Russian tourists to red gold, so it is included in the assortment. Turkish jewelry made from 2-3 types of gold is very beautiful.
Material characteristics
Turkish gold is the result of the work and imagination of jewelry industry masters. Precious metal cannot have a nationality, and the common wording about the country in which the jewelry is made serves to some extent as advertising and a calling card.
After all, tourists who come on vacation strive to purchase jewelry that is truly made with a sense of excellent taste.
Regarding the quality of the material used for their production, it should be noted that Turkey, like many other countries in the world, is not even among the 15 largest producers in terms of precious metal mining. The gold supply for the jewelry industry is mainly replenished through exports.
The reason for its availability from Turkey may be its low purity. The alloy is dominated by the presence of impurities, and sometimes a completely different material that imitates a precious metal:
- alloy of gold and silver (electron);
- platinum with a large amount of ligature (polyxene);
- copper with aluminum (goldin);
- a type of brass containing copper and zinc (tompak);
- composition of chromium, nickel and iron (Belgic).
Turkish gold, the fineness of which is measured in the karat system: for example, a 14-karat alloy contains 14 units of precious metal and 10 units of alloy components.
Try
The yellow tint does not affect the sample in any way - it is the same here, 585. It is only designated differently - the number 585 corresponds to 14K (karat). Products with precious stones are often higher, 750 grade or 18K. And finally, pure gold (coins and bracelets) have 999 purity - 24K.
There must be a hallmark on the back of the product, but it can be indicated by carat value - there is no deception here.
In large shopping centers, a certificate is issued for each product, which indicates the carat of gold (fineness) and the carat (size) of precious stones. A separate certificate must also be issued for designer products from Cartier, Tiffani, Roberto Bravo.
Turkish gold: fineness, prices per gram and main differences
The gilded product takes on a milky hue. If the gold is real, then no reaction will take place.
Sound test
If you take a gold item and throw it onto the surface of the table, then the real metal will ring loudly, like crystal. For such an experience, rings, earrings, but not long jewelry (chains, bracelets) are suitable.
Vinegar test
Pour some vinegar into the container and place the decoration there. Nothing bad will happen to real gold, but fake gold will darken in two minutes.
Iodine test
Iodine is a very good test for the authenticity of jewelry. To do this, you only need to apply one drop to the inside of the product. Gold will remain unchanged. The fake decoration will darken. It can turn either light gray or black.
ANY CHEMICAL TEST IS POSSIBLE ONLY ON THE SURFACE OF THE DECORATION. THE INSIDE IS CHECKED WHEN A PERSON IS READY TO DESTROY THE PRODUCT.
You can also ask experts how to distinguish gold from a fake, who will help you quickly and using several ways to determine whether the jewelry is real. Gilding is almost real metal.
