carats and carets and carrots and some more Karats.....

Is is a carat or caret?  Or maybe with a k or does it have two R's.  Well, yes, yes and yes.  Here they all are explained:

Caret

This is a caret.  Remember them from school? Teachers and editors use them to signal that something ˄ needed.  Caret come from the Latin words caret and carēre.  One R, one E---easy peasie.

carrot

These are carrots.  They are generally orange, but can be white, yellow and even purple. People and some animals eat them.  Two R’s and one O ---easy enough.

Then there is carat or is it Karat which can be carat --- Two a's and one r.  What's a person to do???

Let’s start with Karet.  Once upon a time, it is said that the Roman Emperor Constantine I started to mint a new gold coin.  It was called a solidus.  It was 1/72 of a libra or Roman pound of gold.  Now this solidus, which was equal in mass to 24 silique, had a mass of 1/1728 of a libra. Following?  Well, the siliqua was sometimes called a carat.  Many believe carat was the origin of the value in a karat
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Karat is simply a unit of purity for gold and its alloys.  24 karats = pure gold.  18-karat is 75% gold, since 18 is 75% of 24.  12-karat is 50% gold and 50% something else. Please keep in mind that this deals with weight, not volume. (Click,here to read our post about gold karats.)   

However, take note that carat and karat are sometimes interchanged when it comes to gold.  Either way, it means the same. 

Lastly, lets discuss carat.

A carat is a unit of mass.  It is equal to 200mg or 0.007055 oz.  It is used to measure gemstones and pearls.  Why 200mg?  Who knows.  The history of why a carat = 200mg is a making of another blog post.

So, if you want a 3 carat sapphire in your ring or if you have a ½ carat diamond, it is simply the mass of the gemstone.

diamond carat chart from www.diamondimports.com.au

Gold differences

10 vs 14 vs 18 vs 24??? What does it all mean? Well, let's start at the beginning....

24k means 24 karats of gold---but don't confuse it with carat.  A carat is used to measure gemstones (for example I want a 1 carat diamond). A karat is a unit of purity, with 24 being 100% pure.

Here is the math lesson of the day: 24k gold is 24/24 parts gold.  18k gold is 18 parts gold, and 6 parts of some other metal, and the fraction/ratio pattern continues on down.

• 24k gold is 100% pure
• 18k gold is 75% pure -- the European standard
• 14k gold is 58.3% pure -- most common used in jewelry in the USA
• 10k gold is 41.6% pure

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This is a caret.  Remember them from school? Teachers and editors use them to signal that something ˄ needed.  Caret come from the Latin words caret and carēre.  One R, 1 E. East peasie.

So why isn't jewelry made of 24k gold?  Simple, pure gold is too soft. It looses its shape, bends and scratches very easily.  To fix that problem, other metal is added to the gold-- usually zinc, silver, nickel, platinum or copper (being the most common).  The other metal mixed with the gold allows the gold jewlery piece to be strong and hold its shape.

10k and on up to 24k gold is all considered gold and can be sold labeled gold in the USA.  Different countries have differest standards. Britain and Canda are 9k, while France and Italy are18k.

Side note:  The chemical symbol for gold is Au, which comes from the Latin word for gold, aurum, which comes from the Roman goddess of the dawn, Aurora.