Red Gold - Green Gold

"Green gold" redirects here. For the color, see green-gold. For the Israeli figure, see Greengold.

Green gold alloys are made by leaving the copper out of the alloy mixture and just using gold and silver. It actually appears as a greenish-yellow rather than green. Eighteen karat green gold would therefore contain a mix of 75% gold and 25% silver (or 73% gold and 27% silver). Fired enamels adhere better to these alloys.

Green gold was known to Lydians as long ago as 860 BC under the name electrum, a naturally-occurring alloy of silver and gold.

Cadmium can be added to gold alloys in amounts of up to 4% to achieve a green color. The alloy of 75% gold, 23% copper, and 2% cadmium yields light-green 18-karat gold. The alloy of 75% gold, 15% silver, 6% copper, and 4% cadmium yields a dark-green alloy. Cadmium is, however, highly toxic.

Read more about this topic:  Red Gold

Famous quotes containing the words green and/or gold:

    There was a green branch hung with many a bell
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    A Druid kindness, on all hearers fell.
    William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    As I have known them passionate and fine,
    The gold for which they leave the golden line
    Of lyric is a golden light divine,
    Never the gold of darkness from a mine.
    Robert Frost (1874–1963)