When buying anything, price matters – but quality should matter just as much.
Take the time to find a reputable manufacturer and consider quality when comparing prices. A good rule of thumb is, if the vermeil jewelry piece is priced similarly to a sterling silver piece or unplated gold piece of jewelry, then it’s likely not really vermeil.
This is often an issue of “getting what you pay for.”
This type of jewelry is often more expensive than gold plating, but obviously less expensive than pure gold, en:
- there is no risk of an allergic reaction to an unknown core metal (because all core metals in vermeil are sterling or pure silver),
- there is usually a higher grade of gold used,
- is more durable since it’s required to have a minimum of 2.5 mikron, where a lot of gold plating is simply a thin layer that often wears off, en
- it is malleable for artists to create unique designs.
In order to tell that you are purchasing the real thing and not gold plated pieces is to look at the coloration and the weight.
This kind of gold jewelry is usually sold with 14 karats (minimum), 18 karats, of 24 karat yellow gold, or in a rose gold.
Less expensive gold plated pieces are usually 10 karats.
While gold plated jewelry has a known marking system (GP, HGP, RGP, HGE, or GEP), vermeil does not.
What you can look for is a stamp with a standard silver purity value. This will tell you that the core metal is silver. If you see 925 it would denote 92.5% silwer…letting you know that the core metal is a 92.5% silver alloy.