A chain of freshwater pearls finished with a gold filled toggle and lightweight gold vermeil coin.
What is Gold Vermeil?
Vermeil is a french word (pronounced 'vehr-may') which describes a specific quality of jewellery. To be referred to as 'vermeil', a jewellery piece must meet all of the below conditions:
- Have a sterling silver base. This is an alloy made of 92.5% pure silver.
- The gold plating must be at least 10 karat gold - meaning the gold has at least 41.7% gold content.
- The gold plating must also be minimum 2.5 microns thick, as opposed to standard gold plating which only has to be 0.5 microns thick.
What is Gold Filled?
Gold plated jewellery has a thin layer of gold over brass (under 0.05%), which is not mechanically bonded and is therefore prone to eventually wearing off. In comparison, gold filled means that there is a thick layer of gold (always over 5%) which has been mechanically bonded to a brass core. Due to this permanent bond, gold filled jewellery can last a lifetime when looked after properly, therefore making it a far more affordable alternative to solid gold jewellery!
PLEASE NOTE: Due to each piece being handmade to order, please allow 3 weeks for your jewellery to be dispatched.