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Which and What Karat?

Jewelry Discussion
#1

Hi, I looked in the archives and can’t find an answer to the
following questions:

  1. What is the karat of the modern US liberty eagle. I am asking
    this because I have one and I would like to use it in my jewelry.
    (Plus, it gives me an excuse to use my new rolling mill, and ask for
    drawplates and tongs from Santa this year.)

  2. When doing a marriage of metals, which karat of gold is most
    compatible when soldering to silver? I am looking for the most
    yellow karat I can get, but I don’t want it to be too soft. I have
    used 14 karat, but it seems to get lost on the silver - not enough
    contrast.

Thanks for you help.

Eric (dreaming of one day leaving the computer business behind…)

#2 
 What is the karat of the modern US liberty eagle.

Eric, the Affordable Jewelry and Precious Metals web site gives the
Karat of all the popular gold coins. For the American Eagle, it?s
22kt. For this their web site is at the following link:

http://www.ajpm.com/htbin/gold.cgi

Charles G. Heick
Charles Joseph Jewelers
Cincinnati, Ohio

#3 
  When doing a marriage of metals, which karat of gold is most
compatible when soldering to silver?  I am looking for the most
yellow karat I can get, but I don't want it to be too soft.  I
have used 14 karat, but it seems to get lost on the silver - not
enough contrast.

Eric, I use 18k on silver when making a ring and if I’m using quite a
small piece of gold on an earring or necklace I use 22k otherwise I
use 18k. I think that both silver and 18k are similarly soft and I
tell my customer that it’s probably not a good ring to wear when laying
bricks. Annette