There are several different types of gold that are currently popular. White gold, rose gold, Black Hills gold, etc. What are they, and just as important, how valuable are they?

Golds that are colors other than pure gold are generally alloys, meaning they are mixed with another metal to obtain certain properties and/or color.

White Gold
White gold is a mixture of gold and one or more other metals, usually palladium or nickel. The component metals and their properties largely determine what type of jewelry is made. For example, nickel is added to make the jewelry very hard and durable, so this combination is great for rings and pins. Palladium with gold, on the other hand, produces a soft metal that is often used for gemstone settings.

White gold jewelry is often plated with rhodium to enhance the durability. Rhodium is a member of the platinum family of metals. This plating if often used because it resists tarnish, scratches, and gives a smooth shine to the jewelry.

Rose Gold
Rose gold, pink gold, and red gold are all made of the same metals – gold and copper. This is another type of gold alloy. The redder the piece of jewelry, the higher the proportion of nickel. One of the more common mixtures for rose gold is 75% gold (18k) and 25% copper. Occasionally this type of gold is also called Russian gold because it used to be popular in Russia in the 1800s.

Black Hills Gold
This is simply regular gold that was mined near the Black Hills of South Dakota. This type of gold generally comes from Lead, South Dakota which was one of the most productive mines in the world until 2001, producing ten percent of the world’s gold production for over a century. Most mining in the Black Hills area has since ceased.

The jewelry marketed as Black Hills gold often has some visual characteristics of leaves, grape clusters and vines. In 1980, a judge ruled that in order to call jewelry “Black Hills gold,” it must be manufactured in the Black Hills. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the gold itself came from the Black Hills (although it is the same gold either way).