Rose, Red, and Pink Gold
"Red gold" redirects here. For the deciduous Australian Red Cedar tree, see Toona ciliata. For other uses, see Red gold (disambiguation).Rose gold is a gold and copper alloy widely used for specialized jewelry. It is also known as pink gold and red gold. As it was popular in Russia at the beginning of the nineteenth century, it is also known as Russian gold, but this term is now obsolete.
Although the names are often used interchangeably, the difference between red, rose, and pink gold is the copper content – the higher the copper content, the stronger the red coloration. A common alloy for rose gold is 75% gold and 25% copper by mass (18 karat). Since rose gold is an alloy, there is no such thing as "pure rose gold".
A common formulation for red gold is 50% gold and 50% copper.
Up to 15% zinc can be added to copper-rich alloys to change their color to reddish yellow or dark yellow.
During ancient times, due to impurities in the smelting process, gold frequently turned a reddish color. This is why many Greco-Roman texts, and even many texts from the Middle Ages, describe gold as "red".
Read more about this topic: Red Gold
Famous quotes containing the words pink and/or gold:
“These calves, grown muscular with certainties;
This nose, three medium-sized pink strawberries”
—Randall Jarrell (1914–1965)
“After reading Howitt’s account of the Australian gold-diggings one evening,... I asked myself why I might not be washing some gold daily, though it were only the finest particles,—why I might not sink a shaft down to the gold within me, and work that mine.... At any rate, I might pursue some path, however solitary and narrow and crooked, in which I could walk with love and reverence.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)