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Is All That Glitters Really Gold?

OTTAWA, December 6, 1996 — As the holiday season approaches, consumers should be more careful checking the quality of jewellery and other precious metal goods made of gold, silver, platinum and palladium before they buy that special gift. It is impossible to know the quality of a precious metal just by looking at it.

The federal Precious Metals Marking Act administered by Industry Canada establishes rules for the sale of articles made from precious metals by setting standards for quality marks. Recognizing the many quality marks listed below is one way of ensuring you get what you pay for when purchasing jewellery and other precious metal articles.

Gold is measured in karats, with pure or fine gold being 24 karats. A 10K gold ring, marked or advertised as 10K or 10 Karat should contain 10/24ths fine gold. This is sometimes expressed in its decimal equivalent as .416
Gold plated, G.E.P., plaqué d'or and electro-plaqué d'or are quality marks that indicate an article has been electroplated with gold of at least 10K quality.
The quality mark for silver might read .925, silver, sterling silver, argent, or argent sterling. All of these markings and their abbreviations indicate that the article contains at least 92.5 percent pure or fine silver.
Silver plated, silver electroplated, plaqué d'argent and electro-plaqué d'argent are quality marks that indicate an article has been electroplated with silver of at least 92.5 percent quality.

There are also some other common sense tips to keep in mind:

always buy from a reputable dealer
check for a quality mark that may be stamped on the article or may appear on the hang tag or the box (for example, 10K, .925, sterling silver or G.E.P.)
if there is a quality mark, make sure that there is also a trade-mark (letters, designs, numbers)
before you buy, ask for information concerning the quality of the item
to confirm the information you receive, ask for a detailed description of the article on your receipt